Gillian Roberts latest novel propels her English teacher-private investigator heroine, Amanda Pepper, through a breezy, entertaining adventure in murder and matrimony. It begins with a bang: "My mind was on Steinbeck; my foot was on a hand. I screamed. No one responded, most definitely not the man on the floor."
As one who enjoys the use of a good semi-colon, Roberts had me with the first sentence. And oh yeah: the imagery was pretty good too. Amanda Pepper is an English teacher at Philly Prep who moonlights at the private investigation firm where her fiancée, former police officer C.K. Mackenzie, is currently employed.
One day, Amanda escapes a tedious school assembly to prepare for her class, only to discover a man sprawled at the foot of a flight of stairs. Paramedics rush the man to the hospital, but he dies shortly thereafter. His name turns out to be Tomas Severin, and he is one of Philadelphia's bluest of bloods. As a member of one of Philly's oldest and finest families, his death is a mystery – as is his presence at the school in the first place.
Amanda subsequently discovers a cup of tea on the windowsill of her room – a mysterious cup that could not have been there before the assembly. She rushes this "evidence" to the police, who are somewhat bemused by her delivery – at least until the investigating officer reveals her name was scribbled inside the dead man's pocket notebook.
After the residue of a popular "date rape" drug is found in the tea cup, Amanda and C.K. are subsequently hired by the personal secretary of Severin's mother to discover who "murdered" Tomas. Their investigation reveals many people who might have preferred to see the man dead – angry ex-wives, a ditched fiancée, and his current (but soon to be ex) wife, as well as other family members and the young "gigolo" who appears to be romancing Tomas's mother in an effort to get a chunk of her wealth.
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