About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

BUBBLES A BROAD
by Sarah Strohmeyer
Onyx, March 2005
336 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0451411773


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

For those of you unlucky enough not yet to have had the pleasure of a Bubbles Yablonsky adventure, here's your chance to meet Bubbles at the top of her game. And what a game it is!

Carol Weaver plea-bargained her way into jail for her steel executive husband's murder, but was she really the one who committed the crime? She shows up on Bubbles' doorstep on a rainy November night to plead for the intrepid hairdresser/journalist's help. Newly escaped from jail and convinced that someone is trying to kill her, she needs an ally on the outside. But when Bubbles asks her about her accomplice, who, Bubbles reasons, must be waiting for her in a car, Carol flees into the night.

A few hours later, someone breaks into Bubbles' house and shoots up her bed. Fortunately, Bubbles hears the would-be attacker before he reaches her bedroom and she manages to hide on the fire escape during the assault. She's shaken by the encounter, so when her hunky gonzo photojournalist boyfriend, Stilleto, asks her to stay with him until the crime is solved, she eagerly accepts.

None of this is enough to keep Bubbles from attending the Lehigh Historical Society meeting which she's been assigned to cover by her editor at the News-Times. Bubbles has managed to land a week's slot as a try-out reporter and she doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize her chance at the job.

When she shows up, however, she finds that the photographer who's been assigned to the story is none other than Lorena, a woman whose wedding Bubbles ruined with a horrible hairdressing disaster. Fisticuffs ensue, and Bubbles almost loses her job. That is, until her editor hears about Carol Weaver's escape, appearance at Bubbles' door and the subsequent assault.

Bubbles comes up with some of the best one-liners in detective fiction. She's a zany observer of gender, class and fashion, and Strohmeyer uses her working class background as a razor-sharp tool to illustrate the shallow hypocrisy of the country club set.

Bubbles' knack as a hairdresser for relating to all kinds of people from all walks of life stands her in good stead as she questions everyone who ever knew Carol, from file clerks to the wives of steel executives.

The plot is tightly wound, but it's Bubbles' show all the way. She's funny, delightful, zany, flamboyant, persistent, big-hearted and just plain fun to hang out with throughout this fast-paced, hilarious investigation. Stilleto and Bubbles make a fabulous pair as they overcome obstacle after obstacle to uncover the truth behind Weaver's murder even as their budding romance deepens.

This book really does have it all. Where else would you find a murder theory that cyanide was injected into the dead man through scratches of passion on his back? Where else would the relative strengths of acrylic nails versus natural nails be a significant clue? And where else would you find recipes for homemade beauty treatments?

This book is the perfect treat for a lazy summer day. Airplanes, beaches and subways across America will ring with the laughter of Bubbles' loyal readers. You'll be glad to count yourself among them.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, May 2005

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]