“Lowcountry Bombshell”

by Susan M. Boyer (Henery Press, 248 pgs., $15.95)

Eccentric characters go together in Southern mysteries like, well, shrimp and grits. But Susan M. Boyer deftly shapes characters with just enough idiosyncrasies without succumbing to cliches in her engaging second novel.

“Lowcountry Bombshell” surprises at every twist as Boyer infuses her lighthearted plot with a look at obsession with celebrity, unadulterated greed and an affectionate look at South Carolina.

Private detective Liz Talbot pretty much has her feet on the ground with a practical view of the world, despite her rather complicated love life. It’s the clients who come to her P.I. firm who are the odd ones. At least that’s often how it appears on the surface. Her latest client is Calista McQueen, who glides into Liz’s office looking like a picture-perfect likeness of actress Marilyn Monroe. A recent transplant to Stella Maris, a fictional island adjacent to Charleston, S.C., Calista is convinced that someone wants to kill her and that it will occur on the anniversary of Monroe’s death.

A light mystery melded with the private detective genre has proved to be a winner for Boyer. She continues her lively storytelling in the highly entertaining “Lowcountry Bombshell.”