From Publishers Weekly
Philadelphia teacher Amanda Pepper is vacationing with Sasha Berg, a woman photographer friend willing to share the hotel room she will occupy while working in Atlantic City. On arrival, their hotel gives them a free upgrade to a luxurious, high-roller ' s suite. After Sasha heads out for a dinner date, Amanda departs with policeman C. K. Mackenzie, her significant other who is in town on a case. They're roused by a 1 a.m. call from Sasha, who has found a dead man in the suite and been arrested for murder. Suspecting that Sasha has been framed, Amanda tries to track down her friend's date and to learn if the victim, who ran his own investment firm, truly deserved his "man-of-the-year type" reputation. Besides getting help from her beau, Amanda is assisted by two spunky women--Georgette, who lives on the beach, and Lala (for lollapalooza), an older widow engaged in a husband-snaring scheme--who add ginger and depth to the tale. Aside from a finale that finds Amanda surrounded by a crowd of tourists that seem too dim even to operate slot machines, Roberts ( With Friends Like These ) combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages--about women and poverty--in an entertaining whole. Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selection; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Not only is Philly Prep teacher Amanda Pepper able to launch her vacation with a free junket to Atlantic City, ``America's Number One Vacation Destination,'' but she and her photographer friend Sasha Berg, in town for a shoot, get a breathtaking upgrade at their casino hotel. The only fly in the ointment is financial advisor Jesse Reese, to whose usual suite they've been moved--and who seems so determined to hang on to it that he turns up bludgeoned to death in Sasha's bed. When witnesses identify Sasha as the woman on Reese's arm on his way up to the suite, and Sasha's alibi turns out to be anything but a stand-up guy (a glaring loose end, this), the police move to downgrade her accommodations. It's up to Mandy (With Friends Like These..., 1993) and her sometime lover, Philly cop C.K. Mackenzie, to smash the frame--though C.K. proves to be little help. As Mandy uncovers evidence of Reese's schemes to defraud trusting senior citizens on a grand scale, she starts to see so many of the locals as potential scam victims- -Reese's brassy widow, Poppy; his former partner, Ray Palford; a homeless woman named Georgette who jealously guards her stretch of the boardwalk--that you'd think the town had hung out a banner for a Fleeced by Reese convention. So the mystery's not much of a stretch for Mandy, despite a lineup of zany suspects who keep popping up as abruptly as jack-in- the-boxes...or casino staffers. As usual, Roberts's sprightly heroine is much more engaging than the story she has to tell. (Literary Guild/Mystery Book Club selections) --
Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
