They say “write what you know” and Malone, a host on Turner Classic Movies, has certainly done that in this first title in the Movie Palace Mystery series. Audrey’s career in film in L.A. has crashed, giving her the perfect opportunity to return to Maine’s Pine Island to take over her recently deceased grandmother’s old-time movie theater, the Starlight. Despite an anonymous threat telling her to go back to L.A., she plans a grand reopening, which sadly draws a very small crowd to the showing of Hitchcock’s Suspicion. Then Liam Ross, a menacing presence in Pine Island, is found dead in the projection room, bringing into question everyone who attended the show. Audrey has to pull it together to save the financially strapped Starlight, but small town policing can be small-minded. Luckily, Detective Bailey, in town for a vacation, taps into Audrey’s amateur-sleuthing skills and other locals jump in to help. With quirky and oddly familiar characters, classic-movie quotes and tropes, Malone keeps readers guessing ’til the credits roll in this delightful fiction debut.—Dodie Ownes
