Murder with peacocks, by Donna Andrews

This title was suggested on a listserv for someone looking for humorous books. It was fun, frothy, and light -- a cross between a cozy mystery and chick-lit. Meg Langslow is putting aside her career as a sculptor in iron (a blacksmith really) to return home for the summer to be maid of honor in three weddings -- her mother's second marriage, her best friend's, and her brother's. Most of the principals are also in the small Virginia town where all the weddings will take place, and all three brides are using the services of the local dressmaker, Mrs. Watterson, of Be-Stitched, to make bridal and bridesmaids' dresses. Only she's broken a limb down in Florida and the shop is being looked after by her hunky son, Michael, who town gossips speculate must be gay. All three brides are demanding in their own ways, with the brother's fiance, Samantha, being particularly odious. When Meg's mother's future husband's unpleasant former sister-in-law disappears and is found dead, it is just the first of the several deadly events, luckily all happening to unpleasant people, that mar the string of weddings. A beach read. 332 pp.