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’tis the season to be jolly in Lehigh, Pennsylvania and all of the town is busy with their Christmas shopping and making themselves look good for the holidays. Local newspaper reporter Bubbles Yablonsky is helping out her friend Sandy at the House of Beauty when tragedy strikes. One of the customers dies from an allergic reaction to a beauty treatment at the salon. All the single women in town have been wishing for Debbie Shatski to drop dead in order to make a play for her husband; their dream man. Phil Shatski who “vacuumed the house twice a week, swirled Ti-Dee Bowl n the toilets, scraped leaves from the gutters and did all the grocery shopping – with coupons!” Before they even have time to mourn Debbie’s death they rush home to cook a casserole for the widower husband, to doll themselves up, and to be the first in providing condolences to the bereavied domestic god. But Bubbles has other things in mind like trying to clear her friend of wrongdoing from the police. As soon as she gets going Bubbles realizes that there is just a little bit more to the story of a woman dying inside a hair salon. Sarah Strohmeyer pulls out all the stops when it comes to outrageousness in her latest entry in this humorous series featuring Bubbles, a single mother and former hairdresser with a whole lot of stories to share. This book is no different from the others. Once again, Bubbles gets in way over her head where several situations get out of control and once again she is caught in the middle of things. As Bubbles is busy narrating her story, she is trying to clear her friend of murder, she is being chased by an evil Santa Claus who has some kind of vendetta against her, and, oh yeah, she is being blackmailed into marrying her no-good ex-husband who appears to have some kind of agenda. There are a lot of laugh out-loud moments sprinkled throughout the work as well as some suspense. The one thing that you can be rest assured of is that whatever happens will be over the top. You might think you know what is going to happen, but Strohmeyer has a surprise in store for the readers. Bubbles experiences a major life change that will determine what the future will be for this gutsy, funny, take-charge character. Followers of the series may be in for a shock, or perhaps they will be secretly delighted, with how the novel ends. Suffice it to say, readers will either give this character a severe brush-off for what may be an unfair surprise twist, or still stick with her come hell or high water. Since this is my first book I've read by this author, I have nothing at stake. The first two-thirds of the book were highly entertaining, but the way it ends is open to question to me as a reader.
Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, November 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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