A WEDDING AND A KILLING – the latest book in the Mac Faraday series by Lauran Carr is a pleasurable read. Mac is a super rich retired police detective who learned that his biological mother was a famous mystery writer when she left him her multi-million dollar estate. The book is set along the beautiful shores of Deep Lake Creek and begins on a happy note. Mac and his true love, Archie Monday, have planned a ‘pre-wedding’ ceremony, wanting to tie the knot before the major event expected by Archie’s mother. It seemed simple enough – but Gnarly, Mac’s German shepherd spoils the occasion by finding an almost dead body at the chapel. Who would want to shoot a nice church elder that’s just doing his job by counting the Sunday offerings? There is actually a mystery within a mystery in Carr’s new book. It’s a tangled, twisting adventure that adds more dead bodies along the way. Carr devised a very unusual method for dealing with a rich man’s son who thinks that women were born to be abused. You’ll also be surprised at the choice of weapon used in the climax as well as the deciding factor on who committed one murder by a uniquely distinct residue left on the pistol grip. And then there’s Gnarly who, much to his humiliation, has a forced run-in with a Chihuahua. Carr’s characters are lively, her plots complex, there is always just enough humor to set a lighter tone.