Compromising Positions in today's ``family''-oriented, sleazier-than-ever Tinseltown—as a discontented Hollywood wife (and filmmaker in her own right) plays amateur shamus, mostly for laughs, and uncovers kinkiness and nastiness galore in big-time moviedom households. Lucy Freers—Oscar-nominated animator, wife of a no-longer-hot producer, mother of preteen Chloe—becomes the wrong kind of mini- celebrity when the body of stunning neighbor Julia Prentice, a no- talent ex-actress married to an aging sitcom megastar, surfaces in Lucy's pool. Worse yet, since Julia was known to be a voracious adulterer, suspicion falls on both Lucy's sexy husband Kit (who had caught Julia's eye) and Lucy herself. So, to clear the family name, she starts sleuthing, digging up Hollywood dirt—like Julia's past as an S&M call girl, her secret visits to L.A.'s most exclusive plastic surgeon (with an unlisted office number), and her social- climbing rivalry with elegant Summer Rossner (wife of an Ovitz-like super-agent) over the leadership of a kids' charity, the Magic Wand Foundation. In no time, naturally, Lucy's being followed and shot at. She also flirts with adultery, of course, given that Kit (who's been unfaithful and neglectful) is away on location and a hunky screenwriter is renting the house next door. Before the predictable showdown with the killer, Lucy finds another corpse, witnesses a suicide, and bonds—sort of—with frumpy Detective Teresa Show, LAPD (who dons a Carmen Miranda-esque getup to accompany Lucy to the $1500-a-plate Magic Wand gala). The mystery here is middling Colombo-level, with unsavory details that seem more tired than shocking. Still, Lucy narrates with edgy, appealing zest, and Maracotta (Everything We Wanted, 1984) name-drops and roman-Ö-clefs her way through the New Hollywood—from the parenting craze to the real-estate game—with a neat satirical spin that only occasionally tips over into slapstick.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-14498-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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