The Corpse Wore Stilettos by M. J. O'Neill is a fun very entertaining book that I really enjoyed. Kat Waters's fines herself working at a morgue, after her dad was arrested for racketeering. Kat is living with and supporting her mom and grandmother. I love the way Kat rattles off random thoughts when she is nervous. Cute, funny, and a nice fast read. This title will make a great summer pick. I am looking forward to more books by this author. Highly recommend.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

Loved this cozy mystery.
Had me totally laughing out loud.
Enjoyed the fun characters.
Story is well written and makes you want more
Looking forward to additional books with some of the quirky characters.
Thanks Books Go Social and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Thanks to BooksGoneSocial and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Reviews of the book had me excited to read it. I was looking forward to those laugh out loud moments.

In this book, Kat has to leave her rich social life to take care of her mother and grandmother after her father is jailed (looks like mob ties on the surface). She ends up taking a job at the morgue, and after a body is stolen while she is on duty, takes up the search to find out who took it and why. She gets embroiled in something that may or may not have ties to her father's situation. And are those missle launch codes really?

I've rated this just ok because there are so many improbabilities in the book. Some of the characters (lke DC) are just too over the top and charicature. I feel like the author was reaching for Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum type MC, and for me, it fell short. The premise, a body stolen right out of the morgue, had great promise, but there was just (for me) too many sidebars and variables introduced.

The corpse wore stilettos is a good read. Kat once very lucky to live a life of luxury now has to get a job as her father ends up in prison. Kat lands herself a job in a morgue to keep her family out of the homeless shelter. On her watch a body goes missing, and she is linked to and is trying prove who did it to get herself out of trouble. There were parts that were laugh out loud moments - some times I thought I were slightly unrealsitic but I guess that is the joy of fiction. All in all I would recommend as a light hearted murder mystery.

Wow, what a wild and exciting book mystery ride M.J. O'Neill has created! I am in book "love" with whole quirky, humorous and lovable cast of characters! A trivia talking gorgeous high society heroine, a grandmother who smokes imaginary cigarettes and is sharp as they come, a best friend who dreams of being a superhero, the Russian mob, co-workers you love or hate, handsome men, a pet pig named Marynell...did I mention the strippers & drag queens with hearts of gold? This was one of the books that I purposefully didn't read all at once - I didn't want it to end!

Katherine "Kat" Waters is your normal high society twenty-something - until her father is convicted of a white collar crime and put into prison. A crime Kat doesn't believe he committed. Kat, her mother and grandmother are left to fend for themselves after all their money and property is confiscated by the government....well, except what Grand recovers, during nightly raids, with her senior boyfriend, Claude. To make ends meet, Kat works at the morgue. A particularly sad case, where a body is stolen from the morgue, throws Kat into an adventure of a lifetime...if she survives!

I absolutely loved the book! Kat is a loveable main character. She's independent, smart and determined to find justice for her father. I enjoyed the light romantic angle and the fact that Kat needed a partner - not a rescuer. The supporting characters are well-written and each one has a story that you'll love to discover. The dialogue is witty and has subtle bantering between Kat and her partner Burns. Love that type of book! While there is humor and amazing characters, the mystery is not something that you can easily figure out. While the reader may know "whodunit", the questions of why and who, among Kat's friends or acquaintances is betraying her, becomes the real mystery. Red herrings are all over the place in the book!

The book is fast-paced (don't start it at night unless you can sleep in), has a "keep you guessing mystery", a humorous cast of characters and a main character you'd want for a best friend! I can't wait for the next adventure!

I received an ARC from Netgalley for a fair and honest review of this book.

As the author notes, The Corpse Wore Stilettos is a lighthearted, romantic mystery with a sweet twist. A very well written book, it had me devouring it in a few hours. The characters, the plot and the writing are all superb.

Definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed reading The Corpse Wore Stilettos. It was entertaining and engrossing. I found it hard to put down. I loved the humor and complicated story line. However, it proved to be a little overly complicated by the ending. In fact, I'm still not sure "whodunnit" for every crime. It became a little confusing at the end. Overall, I would definitely read the next installment in what is sure to be a fun series.

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Already on the first page I started laughing. It’s such a fun read, well some parts was.
There's something about the way Kat sees the world and responds to it that reminds me of Rebecca Brandon from the Shopaholic series and Stephanie Plum.
The plot does drag on at places, and I'm not the fondest of most of the supporting characters which was a major turn down for me as the made it hard to focus on the story as it felt as they just cluttered the story.
But overall it's a nice and fun quick read, with laugh out loud moments. Though I wish the story was more balanced with the story and characters. Can't help to feel that there's a lot of empty space and it had been filled out with actual story points the book would have been an excellent read.

This was a fun, light mystery to read. I read a lot of Patricia Cornwell/Kathy Reichs type books and this was an enjoyable read but a little more wild, quirky and light than those. Still has the lovable female crime solver, but she is maybe a little more relatable which can be appealing. The additional characters can also be a hoot!

The story went thus, Kat Walters was an aide at the morgue, helping the coroner with the external examination of corpses. During one such examination, Burns McPhee made an entrance trying to flirt with her to get her to take him to the corpse. In the interim, someone stole that corpse, and Kat was suspended on suspicion of body snatching.

My first book by author M. J. O'Neil, it was quite fun to read the way Kat worked to clear her name. A deal was made with Burns and through mutual sharing of information, they got to the perp. The reveal at the end was quite shocking, I didn't expect such a thing from the character in the book. That's what made this book entertaining.

Kat was etched intelligently by the author, Burns provided the brawn and the security detail. The book felt like a cozy whodunit too with its quirky, varied characters, and Kat's grandmother provided the humor. The book was funny in parts, clever in parts, and quite slow in larger parts of it.

Overall it was an easy fun read on a Saturday afternoon.

If this book would be a season one on Netflix, with a next available season... I would jump into continuing it right away. Light, funny and well written. This story is only beginning! What I look forward in the next book is to learn more about the characters and how they continue solving the mysteries in their lives. I find all aspects of them intriguing and appealing.

The only warning I will give is for people who can not finish the book with unanswered questions. The ending of this book will feel like hitting a wall ;)

This one started out really good, with a former socialite having to take a job at a morgue when her father is arrested and all their assets are frozen. She risks losing her job when a body is stolen under her watch, so she starts investigating the murder in order to find the body. I really liked that the main character Kat actually had some education that made her somewhat qualified for the job, something that showed during the first scene in the book when she is prepping for the autopsy. I was also intrigued when Burns (a potential love interest) was introduced. Unfortunately this book just fell a little flat for me, the humour didn’t really work for me and there were so many characters introduced that it was hard to keep track of them all. There was also to many similarities to the Stephanie Plum series (which I love) for my taste, I mean did this book really need a kooky grandmother, a quirky black best friend and two love interests? The love triangle felt a bit unnecessary, especially as one of the men had nothing to add to the story other than being a contrast to the other love interest. The mystery was ok and was what kept me reading as I wanted to know how it all was connected.

All in all this didn’t really work for me, but it might work for you. There are definitely some quirky characters and fun situations and if you like the chick lit type of mystery you might like it.

Thank you to @netgalley and the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

What fun and a great read was this book!
A woman whose father is in prison for mob money, a mother that still wants to keep appearance even if their all assets are frozen, a grandmother that only forgets what she wants, a job in the morgue where a corpse is stolen and a crazy Russian stalker are a perfect mix for a fast-paced ,well written, great characters and mystery solved by our main heroine. There are a lot of twists and turns to keep you not wanting to stop reading until you find out what happened and how everything will wrap out.
Really enjoyable read with a mysteriously stolen corpse of a journalist female, some other crimes implicated and very similar to the one in this case as well as a very good sense of style as kat is always analysing everyone around her. Kat needs to solve the mystery by herself so she could keep her job and help keep appearance until her father situation resolves.
I liked the banter, the secondary characters are adding a great view and turns to the story and of course, there's a bit of romance that i always want to see in my books.
I'll recommend this book because it has everything you want from a great summer read.

The Corpse Wore Stilettos is the first book of Ms. O'Neil's that I have read. I found that the story started off a bit slow for me. I had to push myself to continue for half of the book, but then I was hooked. The characters are quirky and meshed well with each other. The plot, as stated, was a bit slow to start, but it then captured my interest. Love and betrayal, slumming and pretending to live the high life, and working for the elite to working in the morgue are only a few of things that our main character Kat finds herself dealing with. I liked how I had thought I knew what was going to happen, and then something completely else occurred. The ending does well to lead us in to the next book. How can you go wrong with love and lust, Italian and Russian mobsters, and a serial killer that's out to get you? I enjoyed The Corpse Wore Stilettos, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Solid mystery, but I never really got into the story. Perhaps that is because this is not a typical cozy mystery: there's a serial killer and there are connections to the Italian and Russian mob.

I found the quirky characters (DC and Grand) a bit much. I liked that Kat would spout trivia whenever she was at a loss for words.

I didn't mind that the book ended with a set-up for the next book (it's really not a cliffhanger). I won't be eagerly awaiting the next book in the series though.

The Corpse Wore Stilettos is a fantastic and entertaining read. Great characters and a good storyline. Well written.

I love this book! Another new author for me, I am impressed! Witty, very sophisticated witty, Kat, who's father, a boring, sweet, wealthy man, is arrested as being part of the Mob! Her lifestyle goes from living with her fiance', her job at The Boston Museum, to working in the St.Louis Morgue! She, her Mother, and Grandmother are all downsized to 900 square foot house! In their home, Kat's bathroom was larger than their new home! In order to pay her Grandmother's medicine, she sells a pair of Louboutin shoes to a drag Queen, in order to pay for the meds! Lucky for her, most of her things were at her boyfriends apartment, before he dropped her like a hot potato! That was five months ago, their assets are still frozen!
In the morgue, can we say, extraordinary co-workers? This is a whole new world for Kat, her Mother has raised her by rules, they make Southern Girls Mothers sound normal! It is a riot! Then something happens in the morgue, good thing Kat is Anti-men at the moment, I know my heart stopped beating at the description of Burns! Oh my, can we say, book boyfriend crush! If she doesn't get him, I will boycott the morgue! Oh that's right, the morgue is being boycotted, all for her sassy Grandmother's boyfriend, Claude! I am putting this on my blog, as one of the top 25 books of 2019! This is laugh out loud, call your friends, do a book club, drink wine, and laugh all night kind of book!
I highly recommend! Thank you Netgalley!
carolintallahassee.com

This is quite an entertaining novel - Kat Waters has a lot going on in her life. Her father has been imprisoned, potentially for mob links, and she has left her privileged background and is working in the local morgue, as well as selling off her beloved designer shoes to raise cash to live.
A body is brought in, and before Kat can process it, she is first approached by Burns McPhee who wants to view the corpse, and then it is stolen.
This catapults her into a rollercoaster of events. There was a feeling that the author was so desperate to keep our attention, she introduced a few too many sub-plots for comfort. Her grandmother is quite a character, who provides some light relief. There is also her burgeoning romance with Burns, plus her suspicions around her fellow morgue-workers. The Russian mob are also involved and so it goes on.
Most is unravelled successfully (although I never did really understand why the corpse wore stilettos) and I found myself hoping for a sequel as the characters are endearing and fun.
Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This author is going on my must-read list! This book had me literally laughing out loud and gasping in shock until the last page. Kat and her crew are hilarious and so relatable. I couldn’t decide on my favorite character because they were all so great and so different. I would love to hang out with any of them and would probably have the time of my life. Most mysteries can usually be figured out by the time you’re half way through but this kept me guessing until the very end and it was both unexpected and satisfying. I can’t wait for the next book and I hope this is the first of many to come. Will definitely recommend to all the readers I know.

The Corpse Wore Stilettos by MJ O’Neill is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. This book is based in St. Louis which is a plus for me! 😁. That's my stomping grounds. The story is cute. Our gal Kat is new in the morgue assistance business when two guys show up to look at a freshly dead body. While she is dealing with them, someone else steaks the body. Now the cops think she was in on it! She is now determined to find out who did it.
It was cute it parts but slow in parts so a 3 1/2 stars rounded to 4 stars was given. Worth the read.