Customer Reviews

Blue Blood: A Debutante Dropout Mystery

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sheer delight to read. Enticing from the first chapter and keeps you reading. A great "Who Dunnit" which will suprise you at the end who the actual killer is. GREAT and a definate must read.

Author Susan McGrath is a delight. She's written back to me to let me know that her 2nd installment to this new series "THE GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER", will be out in February of 2005. I can't wait.

Please DO buy this book, you will not be disappointed!

Andy Kendricks has decided to not follow in her mother's footsteps and become a debutante. Instead, Andy is satisfied with her comfortable job as a website designer and small living space. Andy is also known for her loyalty so it's not a shock that her old friend, Molly, comes to her for help. Molly has been accused of a murder that she insists she didn't do. Andy is able to have her mother hire a lawyer for Molly but he doesn't believe in her innocence so Andy decides to take matters into her own hands. She begins an investigation that, if she is not careful, could cost her her life.
Blue Blood is vastly different from Susan McBride's previous work and it proves that she can write on both sides of the spectrum. Blue Blood is a wonderful book filled with the best characters that I have come across. Andy is not only a person that I enjoy reading about, she is someone to admire. Every aspect of this book is fine tuned to perfection. I can't wait for the next book in the series and I look forward to the success that Susan McBride should enjoy from this book.

Drop-out debutante Andrea "Andy" Kendrick receives a plea out of the blue from her former best friend from prep school. Molly O'Brien, whom Andy's high-society mother, Cissy, calls "that scholarship girl," has been arrested for murder and she wants Andy to take care of her little boy.

Though Andy hasn't heard from Molly in ten years, she jumps into the fray--rescuing the boy (and dumping him at her mother's Highland Park mansion, much to Cissy's dismay). She just knows Molly could never possibly kill someone under any circumstances, and she is determined to prove her friend's innocence. With the help of Molly's inexperienced (but cute) lawyer, Andy delves into the mystery, going so far as to get herself hired at the "Hooters"-type restaurant where the murder took place, and where Molly worked as a waitress. In purple hot pants and a stuffed bra, she gathers the evidence against the suspects, which include a randy televangelist, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, a rabid activist who regularly pickets the restaurant, a mysterious silent partner, and a host of sexually harassed waitresses.

This is a cute read, with an amusingly eccentric cast of characters. Though I felt Andy was inexcusably reckless at times (like when she barges into a motel room where she knows the possible murderer is having illicit sex), I couldn't help cheering for her. And though the humor felt a bit forced in places, I did snicker out loud several times. This is a must-read for anyone within or on the fringes of Dallas high society. The author certainly nails that world.

_Blue Blood_ is an amusing little story with an interesting narrator. Andy (Andrea) Kendricks is an upper-crust Texas society girl, who decides that charity events, fund-raising, and hunt balls are not her thing, and declines to "come out" despite her mother's plans. Now she's living the "normal" life, despite her mom's attempts to pull her back into the society whirl.

Andy's mom, Cissy Blevins Kendricks, is formidable; doing everything she can to introduce Andy to the "right" people, especially the right husband. The book begins with Andy in a restaurant with her mother and yet another prospective beau; the evening was presented to Andy as a "night out with just us girls." Andy is unstoppable in her own way: she will smile at her mother but do things her own way and in her own good time.

Then Andy hears from her best friend from her prep school days. Molly never fit in either, being the "scholarship girl" from a series of foster homes. The girls went off to art college together but Molly ran off to Paris with her boyfriend, got pregnant, and was dumped. Ten years later, Molly is calling Andy for help: she is accused of murdering her boss at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. The restaurant is a hillbilly version of Hooters, and the boss not only hit on the staff frequently, he seemed to have plenty of enemies. But the police are convinced that they have arrested the culprit and Molly is denied bail, leaving Andy to take care of Molly's young son.

Andy isn't an investigator, she's a website designer. She asks her mother to hire a lawyer for Molly, and mother reluctantly complies. But the young man doesn't believe Molly is innocent, and doesn't seem to be trying very hard to help her. So it's up to Andy to find the real killer.

I enjoyed McBride's descriptions and characters more than the underlying mystery. Andy is haunted by her father's untimely death (right before her planned debut), and clearly has more in common with him than her society mother. But there weren't enough possible killers in the book to mislead me, the mark of a good whodunnit. I was able to identify the guilty party far sooner than I should have because one clue was far too obvious. The bad guys were coarsely drawn, with little nuance or any redeeming features. And too many intermediate clues were clear to the reader well before Andy picked up on them. I also felt McBride didn't convince me of Andy's expertise in her career as a website designer. Someone comfortable with digital photography and HTML code (or even MS FrontPage) should have had more computer skills and savvy than Andy ever demonstrated. The book could have worked just as well with Andy as a freelance writer or an accountant without changing anything else in the plot!

This a good, mindless, fun read, suitable for beaches or airplanes. But as a mystery it is lacking. mad-haus 1 March 2004

This new series is definitely a winner! Andy Kendricks is a gal we'd all love to have for a friend. Especially if we get into trouble! The lengths Andy goes to for her friend Molly is incredible and more fun than I can say without giving the plot away. Andy's mother is a hoot, and I hope she appears in each sequel. Don't miss this! BLUE BLOOD will keep you turning pages with a smile on your face. I read this in two sittings, that's how much I loved it!

Although she grew up with a silver spoon in her, mouth Andrea Kendricks prefers stainless steel. She was a debutante drop out who never came was presented to society and works for a living instead of relying on her trust fund. Although she went to a preppy private school, her best friend was scholarship student Molly O'Brien who was raised not in a manor like Andrea, but in a series of foster homes.

The two friends went to the same middle class college together before Molly dropped out to follow her artist boyfriend to Europe. Andrea had not heard from Molly for over a decade when she calls up to ask her to take care of her son because she is in jail on a murder charge. When Andrea visits Molly in jail and hears her story, she knows Molly is no killer and sets out to prove it by going undercover at Juggs where the waitress dress in the bare minimum. Since it was Molly's boss who was killed, Andrea figures she has a very good chance of finding out who wanted the owner dead. Her allies in their endeavor turn out to be Molly's cute lawyer and Andrea's sociable mother.

BLUE BLOOD is a refreshing and entertaining amateur sleuth tale starring a blue-blooded heroine who embraces the middle class lifestyle. She is the type of woman people want as a best friend; a person who loves her mother even if she dislikes her mom's lifestyle and who will go the extra mile for a friend she has not seen in years. Susan McBride has written a who-done-it that will appeal to a broad base of mystery fans and will be the winner of many awards because this book is a gem..

Harriet Klausner

Andrea "Andy" Kendricks had never been the deb her mother, Cissy Kendricks, had hoped for. Andy was a web designer who enjoyed taking care of herself and living in a small place, rather than being pampered and living in a mansion.

When Andy's old college roommate, Molly O'Brien, was accused of killing her boss, Bud, Andy rushed to help. Molly had worked at Jugs, a type of restaurant where the waitresses made those at Hooters look like children. To prove Molly innocent, Andy must go undercover...padded bras, tight pants, layers of cosmetics, and all!

**** This is the first of a new mystery series. The author gives the reader a bit of humor to tweak the seriousness of typical mysteries. The result is a delightful new type of mystery that will entice its readers and leave them eager to see what Andrea will do next. Recommended! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.