A Tisket, a Tasket, a Fancy Stolen Casket: A Callie Parrish Mystery

by Fran Rizer

Bubbles meets Six Feet Underin the new Calamine Parrish mystery series. Mortuary cosmetologist Calamine Parrish stares death in the face every day. But when she finds a hypodermic needle in the neck of an "accidental" drowning victim, and the victim's fancy casket is stolen, Callie finds herself in over her head-and in the way of a killer.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425218007
• ISBN13: 9780425218006
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.3" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fran Rizer is a new author for me and I love her

She writes so well and makes me laugh, I dont want to put the book down.

Callie Parrish series is excellent!

Just when you thought all the good jobs for amateur sleuths had been taken, a plucky and funny heroine rises above the endless cooks, writers, tour guides, and antique shop owners that populate today's cozies. Callie Parrish is a make-up artist for corpses. Since she works at a funeral home, this neatly answers the often-problematic question of why the series heroine keeps encountering dead bodies; in Callie's case, it's all part of the job, and every death has a story behind it. A TISKET, A TASKET, A FANCY STOLEN CASKET is a worthy start to the series. Catchy titles, no explicit gore, lively first-person writing style, and just enough danger and romance to spice up the story. If you're a fan of Maddy Hunter, Susan Rogers Cooper, or Elaine Viets, this one's for you!

Calamine Lotion to the Rescue

Calamine Lotion Parrish, Callie, has left teaching and returned home to St. Mary, South Carolina, and now works at Middleton's Mortuary. During her down times she reads mysteries and knows she can solve one. When Bobby Saxon dies (and not accidently), his expensive casket stolen, and two widows show up at the wake. Everything breaks loose. Callie is at the center of the storm. The reader remains in the dark until the last few pages. In between you meet the wacky characters that inhabit St. Mary. You will want to visit these characters when the second book in the series come out and let's hope it's soon.

A TISKET A TASKET ENDS TOO SOON!

A hypodermic broken off in the body of a family friend plunges Callie Parrish into her first mystery in this new series. Mortuary cosmetologist Callie's discovery of the needle changes the death from accidental to homicide and converts many of the funeral home visitors from mourners to suspects. Jane, Callie's self-sufficient visually handicapped best friend, "sees" more than many sighted people. Her worries that Callie is putting herself in danger come true. Rizer provides readers with an excellent feel for the coastal South Carolina small town setting and its appealing and entertaining characters. The story line is strong and entertaining. The only problem is that the second of the series doesn't come out until March, 2008, and the reader will want to read more about Callie before then!

The Blonde Leading the Blind

As South Carolina author Fran Rizer's finishing her third novel, her first, A Tisket, A Tasket, made it to bookshelves last month. Bookstores call it a cozy, and though the protagonist, Callie Parrish, is clearly a descendent of Miss Marple, she also bears mixed genes of Rebecca (of Sunnybrook Farm) and Shirley Manson (of Garbage). Callie's best friend is a blind, LSD-inspired neo-hippie whose career is a 1-900 sex-talk operator. At last, a sidekick who works for a living! Instead of working for a living, Callie works for the dead as a mortician's make-up artist. Throughout, the book reveals funerary details we, the living, seldom consider. In the course of making up a corpse, Callie discovers a broken hypodermic buried in a man. The book has a couple of plot twists, one which I saw coming and one I didn't. The sense of scene is good, too, but the part I liked best was Callie's patter. (She is blonde, isn't she?) More at: http://criminalbrief.com/?p=353

Her investigation changes her life.

Fran Rizer's A TISKET, A TASKET, A FANCY STOLEN CASKET tells of mortuary cosmetologist Callie, who likes to end her day with a Moon Pie and a mystery novel. When a body turns up to have evidence of murder on it, Callie realizes someone out there has a vested interest in burying the crime evidence at the mortuary - and her investigation changes her life.