From Amazon.com
Robin Hudson has reason to believe that the only cosmic order ruling her existence is Murphy's Law. What else could a woman think when her pious, next- door neighbor's electric Jesus display shorts out and burns down their East Village apartment building? Bad enough that she's just returned from a disastrous PR trip for TV network WNN. Who knew that touching Thai children's heads put a curse on them, or that in Russia, an even number of flowers is appropriate only for a funeral, not for a dinner party? Who knew that certain colleagues are plotting to oust her from the network, and that Pierre, her recent French fling, isn't calling. Now she's homeless. It's a good thing her friend Tamayo has offered her the use of an apartment in the famed artists' haven, the Chelsea. A little peace and quiet in an artistic setting is just what Robin needs.
But when a teenager named Nadia shows up on Tamayo's doorstep eager to be reunited with her fiancé, courtesy of Tamayo's underground lovers' railroad, Robin finds herself playing nurse to a spoiled-rotten Juliet. And when Nadia goes missing before her Romeo (Rocky) arrives, the next person at the door is enough to cross anyone's stars: Gerald Woznik--art dealer, lecher, and all- around cad, who stumbles across the threshold and inconsiderately dies.
Between finding Nadia, feeding Rocky, and fending off the police, Robin embarks on a one-woman campaign to solve the woes of the world--and opens a sizeable can of worms. What was socialite Grace Rouse doing clinging to the Chelsea fire escape the night Gerald was murdered? Why is art doyenne Miriam Grundy lying about meeting Nadia? And who is the "Baby" that everyone is talking about?
More comic novel than mystery, The Chelsea Girl Murders takes its readers on a rollicking jaunt through the Big Apple. Whodunit isn't nearly as important as what's-Robin-gonna-do-about-it, and some of her solutions are pricelessly funny. As in her previous Robin Hudson outings (Revenge of the Cootie Girls, Nice Girls Finish Last, What's A Girl Gotta Do, The Last Manly Man), Sparkle Hayter's observations on New Yorkers and their loony obsessions have just the right dash of caustic wit. Fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum can add another star to the pantheon of Northeastern femmes formidables. --Kelly Flynn
From Publishers Weekly
Robin Hudson's temporary relocation to New York's Chelsea Hotel (after a fire in her apartment) plunges her into a case of murder, art theft and cultural miscommunication in this latest installment in Hayter's series (The Last Manly Man; Nice Girls Finish Last; etc.) featuring the irrepressible and irreverent reporter-turned-television executive. Robin takes shelter in her friend's studio at the Chelsea, only to find that her refuge is also a stop on a modern-day underground railroad, a loose association of folks who assist women from closed cultures to escape arranged marriages. Hudson meets Nadia, a young woman who has fled her native "Plotzonia" in order to track down and marry her true love. Nadia has brought with her a 15th-century icon, possibly stolen during WWII, which she intends to sell in order to finance her new life in the States. Unfortunately, a group of Plotzonian rebels also want the icon, believing it will mystically aid their revolution. When Nadia flees after a shady art dealer dies in the hotel, Robin's search for the woman brings her into contact with the Chelsea's eccentricsAincluding Maggie Mason, a feisty, vindictive artist with whom, Robin discovers, she shares an ex-lover. As they trace back the stops of the "railroad," the two must contend with Nadia's would-be suitor, Plotzonian revolutionaries and performance artists. Hayter deftly incorporates the rich lore of the Chelsea Hotel into another amusing mystery sure to delight her fans. Agent, Russ Galen. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
