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MURDER OF A SLEEPING BEAUTY
by Denise Swanson
Signet, May 2002
263 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0451205480


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Skye Denison left Scumble River, Illinois, triumphant, having managed to insult everyone in town in her valedictory speech. She has been forced to return from New Orleans, humiliated, having been jilted by her fiancÈ and fired from her job (we don't know the particulars, except that it involved insubordination). Through the influence of her godfather, Uncle Charlie, she has managed to get a job as school psychologist and is trying to mend fences with her family and the townspeople.

A session with one of Skye's most difficult students is interrupted by a distraught female student, crying, "Sleeping Beauty is Dead." Skye follows the frazzled young woman (who quickly disappears)to the auditorium only to learn that the student playing Sleeping Beauty in the school's upcoming musical is indeed dead.

The first reaction of the principal, who spends most of the book wringing his hands and worrying about the school's image is "We've got to be extremely careful....No matter how we handle this or how she died, we're screwed." Skye is outraged at that reaction. Uncle Charlie and the principal both beg Skye to investigate the murder to learn if the school is in any way culpable. The death is especially important because the victim, Lorelei Ingels, is a cheerleader, winner of many beauty pageants, and daughter of the owner of the town's bank. However, as Skye investigates she hears tales of a young woman who was far from a paragon but who had alienated even those who pretended to be her friends.

In addition to the bureaucracy of the school system, Skye encounters the tawdry world of beauty pageants for young girls. Skye is horrified at the fierce competition in these pageants. Entrants are sabotaged, and mothers all but encourage their daughters to become anorexic -- at the age of seven or eight. At an age when kids should be climbing trees, skipping rope, or playing hopscotch, these little girls are being paraded around in outfits that would make Britney Spears look like a nun and that many of the parents can ill afford. Skye learns that parents have taken out second mortgages or taken on second jobs to pay for the entrance fees, transportation, and costumes involved in the pageants.

Skye has to go to some ludicrous extents to proceed in her investigation, because she has alienated the town's chief of police since he believes that she betrayed him in the events chronicled in the second book of the series, Murder of a Sweet Old Lady. (As a result, he attempts to thwart her investigation at every turn.) This brings up one of the problems with the book: too many references to the previous books in the series. I've read both but so long ago that the references went right by me. Further, while the day to day life of a guidance counselor is of interest, the story sometimes gets bogged down in the details of Skye's job. Finally, there's a crucial piece of information uncovered in the autopsy that isn't dealt with satisfactorily. Despite those few reservations, I would recommend this to fans of cozies and of Skye Denison.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, May 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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