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Summary: you'll laugh; you'll cry.
Review: What do you do when you think you've murdered your neighbor? When does the latest bruise become enough to make you leave your husband? Billiemae Waller and Maris Lane finds themselves in these predicaments in Alice Holman's first novel, The Last Days Murder List. Holman's novel is actually two genres in one: a murder mystery and a contemporary fiction piece about domestic violence. The two stories wrap around Pharaoh Blue, both women's former lover and current savior. While it's never clear exactly what Pharaoh does for a living, he seems to have plenty of time on his hands to help Billiemae and Maris.Billiemae is sure, downright positive, that she killed her friend and next door neighbor, Amelia, when she threw a jar of salsa at a buzzing fly? After all, Amelia was lying there in a pool of blood, not moving, staring straight ahead with dead eyes while a fly crawls on her nose. Surely somebody will find out she did it; sooner or later an awful stink is going to drift down the hallway. Begging Pharaoh for help is no easy matter. He's wrapped up in Maris' domestic problems. But Billiemae convinces him to go to Amelia's apartment with her. There they discover that Amelia is not lying dead on the kitchen floor, as Billiemae left her, but curled up in her bed with a bullet hole in her forehead. Now it's up to the Billiemae and Pharaoh to solve Amelia's murder. As the sleuthing begins, Billiemae and Pharaoh discover that Amelia is not what she seems, a nice, lonely, lady, eager for company and a bit of gossip. Amelia is into selling video pornography. How she comes by these tapes and their connection to Maris becomes all too clear as Billiemae and Pharaoh comb Denver for clues and suspects. Sometimes hilarious and over-the-top comical, sometimes poignant, The Last Days Murder List is an interesting work and a unique first novel. The title doesn't make any sense and some of the secondary characters get lost when they appear later in the novel, but don't let these minor infractions deter you from reading the first work from this promising new voice. There are twists and turns that I never saw coming and one that made me gasp out loud. You'll laugh....you'll cry....what else can I say.
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