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The Chaos Behind Them
Murder at the Aphrodisia follows a former soap-opera star whose grand reopening of her restored beach mansion turns deadly. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
This book is a sequel to my first book, Death by Chaos. It picks up 10 years after Tasha and her friends help solve a cold case and thankfully, put all the chaos behind them. I originally planned to make that book a one-off but over time, I found myself missing these vibrant characters. Plus, readers kept asking me if there would be any more stories. The characters are now 10 years older and wiser, so I wanted to place them in a more grandeur environment and have them rely more on their individual skills to solve a mystery. Plus, they are goddesses, so I wanted to create a scenario where they would be dressed in their appropriate togas.
What made you want to tell a mystery through such a strongly character-driven lens?
I tend to write stories that I would want to read. I am attracted to fun, colorful, witty characters who somehow always seem to get into a mess and then needs to use their wits to get out. I also enjoy dialogue. Just the way characters speak to each tells volume about their dynamics, and their reactions to discovering a crime scene or new evidence helps move the plot along.
How did you balance the mansion’s glamour with the darker secrets hidden within it?
From the beginning I wanted the mansion to be a main character. I spent hours researching famous Hollywood mansions and home remodeling articles. Tasha spent years and a fortune renovating a dilapidated mansion on the beach, restoring it to its glory. But all the fresh paint in the world cannot hide the dark history, nor the tendency for history to repeat itself.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I have just started my fourth book and much to my surprise, I am creating new characters in a new environment. It may be because I have recently attended school reunions, have reconnected with childhood friends, and have had some wonderful visits with cousins, that I have decided to embrace my Polish heritage and create a mystery that forces my main characters to revisit and reexamine her childhood, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Murder at the Aphrodisia
Murder at the Aphrodisia, by Renaii West, is a character-driven comic mystery about Tasha Felding, a former soap opera star whose grand reopening of her restored Topanga Beach mansion turns into another brush with death, secrets, and old wounds. Set around Aphrodisia, a glamorous old Hollywood estate with Greek goddess flair, the novel brings Tasha back together with her longtime friends Elizabeth and Dawn as they navigate a murder, a tangled history, and the kind of chaos that seems to follow them like a shadow in heels.
What stood out to me first was the book’s voice. It’s big, chatty, theatrical, and unapologetically dramatic, which fits Tasha perfectly. The dialogue has the feeling of friends who have known each other too long to bother with politeness, and that gives the story a lively spark. I liked how the author lets the women tease, jab, comfort, and challenge each other without stopping to overexplain every emotional beat. The humor can be broad, and the pacing sometimes lingers over details, especially the mansion and party planning, but I could see the purpose behind it. Aphrodisia isn’t just a setting. It’s Tasha’s dream, her stage, her vanity project, and eventually, her crime scene. That makes the house feel like another character in the mystery.
As a mystery, the book leans less toward grim suspense and more toward a cozy, theatrical whodunit with a bawdy edge. The genre work is there in the secrets, suspects, hidden motives, and amateur sleuthing, but the heart of the novel is really the friendship between the goddesses. I found myself more invested in how these women carry their past than in the mechanics of the crime itself. That isn’t a bad thing. The murder gives the plot its shape, but the deeper pull comes from memory, loyalty, reinvention, and the strange way old choices keep arriving at the front door wearing a new costume. The Greek tragedy references are playful, but they also fit. Everyone is acting out some role, and everyone seems to know the fates are laughing.
I would recommend Murder at the Aphrodisia to readers who enjoy humorous mysteries with strong female friendships, messy histories, dramatic personalities, and a setting that loves old Hollywood as much as it loves a good scandal. Fans of cozy mysteries, comic mysteries, and ensemble stories about women with history will likely have a lot of fun here. It feels like sitting with a friend who says, “You will not believe what happened next,” and then absolutely makes good on that promise.
Pages: 216 | ASIN : B0GT267NGJ
