Moseley's first sentence of her third Honey Huckleberry mystery, is a hook few readers could resist.
After reading Moseley's "The Fourth Steven," and "Grinning in His Mashed Potatoes," readers will be ready for "A Little Traveling Music, Please."
The "key" without a note, came in a dirty envelope that looked like it could have been sent from the Balkans or maybe New Jersey. It was addressed simply to Bailey with Honey's Washington Avenue address in Fort Worth, Texas. You need to know that the dog in question is an umpteen pound labrador named Bailey who really belongs to Honey's friend Harry Armsted. Bailey is big, but gentle, and sleeps on a pillow with a floral pattern, not exactly a "guy" type of thing. However, you wouldn't want to slip up on Bailey's blind side — no way, no how.
The thrust of Moseley's "A Little Traveling Music, Please," delves deep into a mystery hinted at in the ending of her last book "Grinning In His Mashed Potatoes." Many of the same characters like Bailey, Janie, Harry, Steven Hyatt, and Bondesky the accountant, continue their dance macabre in this story.
Harry Armsted, the owner of a small book store on South Padre, left Bailey with Honey Huckleberry when he fled to London on some strange mission. Before Harry left, he asked Honey two things, keep Bailey until he returned and would she please marry him. Honey's answers were yes to the first, and not now to the second.
Neither Honey nor her old friend and new house-mate, Janie Bridges, can figure out who sent the key and why Bailey went wild when he sniffed the envelope. Hmmm.
"Janie took the key from Honey and examined it. ‘Who would send a key to a dog? And why?'"
"It's a mystery to me," Honey said. This response brought a look on Janie's face that words cannot describe. Janie, is always on the lookout for the dark and mysterious side of life. A touch of danger is Janie's idea of living. Once Janie owned a mystery book store on Honey's route when she was a representative for Constant Books. After Janie's divorce from her husband, she moved into Honey's Victorian mansion in Fort Worth. Where else could she go?
Anyway, Janie loves mysteries, and somehow Honey is always up to her neck in some nefarious ‘goings on' (that's Texican for ‘happenings') like mayhem and murder.
With Harry off to London, Steven Hyatt making his movie in Australia (using the money Honey invested in the picture), Honey's in clover. Honey has the four million dollar inheritance from her father and all things are bright and beautiful. That is they were until the key appeared in the mail along with some cut off notices from the utility companies.
"Cut off notices?" How could that be? Honey has millions invested by Bondesky, and a healthy bank account. Bondesky pays all her bills and keeps her taxes in order.
The story is off and running when Honey discovers Bondesky is missing, his office closed down, and a man named Alvin Hamra a.k.a. Sledge Hamra a private investigator (he says) is on the old man's trail. Worst of all, Honey's money is also on the missing list. All she has left are a few dollars and paid for tickets to London where she and Janie had planned to go to search for Harry.
In the next few chapters a wild ride to South Padre Island finds Honey and Janie up to their necks in a Hurricane, then a Texas Tornado. Back in Fort Worth they decide to use the tickets and fly to London. On the way they stop in New York City to pick up their good friend Minnie, the plus-sized model. Minnie became friends with the girls at a Texas Spa where Honey's last caper climaxed with multiple murders. Anyway, Minnie, is six feet tall and richer than King Midas. The "three Musketeers" fly off to England in hopes of finding Harry, and to follow the clue they picked up at Padre as to what the "key" might fit.
The hijinks the girls get into in London make an episode of "I Love Lucy" look tame. First Honey is kidnaped by some hoodlums who really are after Harry not Honey. The kidnappers have good reason to want Harry in their gun sights. Revenge is their game.
This time out, Moseley gives us a plot that is as thick as London fog. She spins her usual crafty spell on the characters so that you find yourself holding your breath as Honey, Minnie and Janie scoot inches ahead of mortal danger. If you can't chew gum, pat your tummy, and breathe all at the same time, you'll have trouble surviving this convoluted romp.
What the heck, it's summertime, take "A Little Traveling Music, Please" to the pool and have fun with Honey Huckleberry as she bungles her way through another frolicking good read.
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(Jones is a published writer & literary critic)
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