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MURDER OF A KEN AND BARBIE
by Denise Swanson
Signet, November 2003
272 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0451210727


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

MURDER OF A BARBIE AND KEN is the fifth in this popular series set in Scumble River, Illinois which features school psychologist Skye Denison.

Skye has been cautious with her lovelife since being dumped cruelly by her last long-term boyfriend, one of the events that led her back to her small home town a couple of years go. Finally now she's moving forward in a relationship with the town's undertaker and coroner, Simon.

Simon has joined the men only social club, the Grand Union of the Mighty Bulls, and persuaded Skye to join the women's equivalent, the Gumbettes. This is how Skye finds herself going to events run by the women, including the latest held by Barbie Addison, the local queen of selling Instant Gourmet products. Much as she tries to wriggle out of it, Skye ends up ordering a small amount of prepacked food.

A couple of days later, after a massive snowfall, Skye's dad gives her a lift to Barbie's house so that Skye can collect her food. The washing machine is audible but there are no other signs of life. Skye enters the kitchen and finds Ken strangled on the floor. Soon after she discovers Barbie dead in a freezer. Unlike in earlier books the police chief, Wally, and her boyfriend Simon actively encourage Skye to snoop around and look for clues to the murderer.

If that wasn't stressful enough, Skye has a surprise houseguest, Simon's mother. Simon had told Skye that his mother was dead, or at least to him he has now amended and won't have anything to do with her. Due to the snow, the motel is full so she has nowhere to go until the owner and Skye's godfather suggests Bunny, as she likes to be called, stay with Skye. Apparently Bunny couldn't conform to the lifestyle that Simon's dad wanted and would disappear for long periods of time leaving her son behind. Dressing in a somewhat tartish manor she attracts plenty of attention from the locals.

Lastly, Skye's two young occasional sidekicks, Frannie and Justin, want to cover the murder story in the new school paper. As they are prone to doing their own investigation, Skye finds herself trying to keep them out of trouble.

For me, MURDER OF A BARBIE AND KEN is a return to the quality of the first two books in the series. With less focus on the work of a school psychologist and more on sleuthing, this one is a puzzling whodunit which kept me guessing to the end. The characters' lives are changing and for the better and it looks like Bunny might be an addition to the array of quirky characters in this small town. An enjoyable cozy with a cold, snowy Thanksgiving setting.

Reviewed by Karen Meek, March 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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