Black Beans & Vice

September 6, 2010
In Stanley's winning sixth Supper Club mystery (after 2009's The Battered Body), head librarian James Henry, now that he's reunited with his ex-wife, Jane, and learned he has a four-year-old son, Eliot, hopes to curb his sugar craving with hypnotherapy at the new Wellness Village in scenic Quincy's Gap, Va. James and his fellow dieters—deputy sheriff Lucy Hanover, pet grooming store owner Gillian O'Malley, art teacher Lindy Perez, and mailman Bennett—enjoy guru Harmony York's laid-back sessions. Less peaceful is Wellness Village's fresh food festival, attended by James and family in the hope of coping better with Eliot's sudden determination to go vegan, during which councilman Ned Woodman drops dead of a suspicious heart attack. Later, after the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, militant vegan Tia Royale dies, an apparent strangulation victim. An unusual murder weapon is just one of the surprises in this enjoyable tale of high-cal crime.