Birthday Party — Marne Davis Kellogg

Lilly Bennett would no more think of going out without her Glock .26 than without her pearls. A hard-boiled P.I. with a touch of class and a federal marshal's badge, Lilly knows the darkest secrets of Wyoming's most glittering citizens....

Clay Parker's exit from this world was less than dignified: The former cowboy movie star was shot to bits over dessert at a deadly dull charity dinner. His Las Vegas funeral was no more dignified but a whole lot more entertaining, with a two-dozen-showgirl salute and an appearance by Wayne Newton. Parker was the spokesman for an unpopular family-owned land company that's carving chunks out of Wyoming's wide-open spaces. And he's only the first to die, plunging Lilly into a case as messy and full of homicidal loathing as only a family can be....