Cheap Trills - Thomas Wendall

Winner of the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery of 2023!

"Cheap Trills is strikingly original, brightly inventive, masterfully plotted, and truly hilarious." -Stephen Mack Jones, author of the award-winning August Snow thriller novels

After her mother sneaks off on an Eat, Pray, Love tour to Bali that goes horribly wrong, travel agent Cyd Redondo must outwit a ring of songbird smugglers and take on a killer, all while trying to keep three orphaned, endangered Bali Starling chicks alive in her purse.

It's 2007 and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, has Eat, Pray, Love fever. Every book club in town is devouring the bestseller and all of Cyd's senior citizen clients are dying to head to exotic Bali. But the travel agent in Cyd only sees its dangers-three active volcanos, six venomous snake species, no wheelchair ramps, about fifteen possible tropical diseases, and the death penalty for smugglers.  

So she's hurt and furious, but also terrified, when her mother, Bridget, sneaks off with two friends on a Bali tour booked by Cyd's archnemesis, Peggy Newsome. Of course, Bridget and her friends wind up stranded and smack dab in the middle of a murder investigation. Now Cyd must navigate Balinese culture, battle songbird smugglers and thieving monkeys, commandeer a funicular railway, infiltrate an underground Tupperware network, and find the real killer, all while trying to keep three hungry, endangered Bali Starling chicks alive in her purse . . .

Praise for the Cyd Redondo Mysteries:

"Instant escape, instant entertainment, and diabolically clever. I would follow the fab Cyd Redondo anywhere." -Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author

"Cyd puts the fun in funicular! Sparkling, witty, delightful." -Lou Diamond Phillips, actor, director and author of the bestseller The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira

"Bali High! Thomas's tight, clever, and witty writing has never been better!" -Matt Coyle, award-winning author of the bestselling Rick Cahill series

"Thomas has created a sidesplittingly hilarious heroine without rival." -James L'Etoile, award-winning author of Dead Drop and the Detective Emily Hunter series

"I love, love, love this book . . . screwball comedy mystery at its best." -Dru's Book Musings

"Wendall Thomas is a magician, somehow imbuing the very serious subject of exotic bird poaching with humor, intrigue, exoticism and romance . . . the mystic island of Bali comes alive in the lively, intricately researched, and thoroughly entertaining mystery." -Baron R. Birtcher, LA Times bestseller and award-winning author of Reckoning and Fistful of Rain