BUBBLES A BROAD

Would-be reporter Bubbles Yablonsky (Bubbles Ablaze, 2003, etc.) sticks her nose for news into a hornets’ nest and lands in trouble up to her cellulite-free wazoowey.

Determined to leave behind her hairdressing career and snag the berth on the Lehigh News-Times that her seven-year stint at Two Guys Community College prepared her for, Bubbles talks night editor Tony Salvo into giving her a two-week tryout. Unfortunately, her first assignment—covering the Lehigh Historical Society’s meeting at the Moon Inn—pairs her with photographer Lorena Ludwig, who, halfway through the meeting, recognizes Bubbles as the stylist who accidentally dissolved her hair two hours before her wedding. Lorena lashes out at both Bubbles and social-climbing Susan Morse, and the ensuing brawl gets Bubbles hauled before managing editor Dix Notch, who’d love to can her. But Bubbles has an ace up her sleeve. She’s talked with Carol Weaver, a convicted killer on the lam, who swears her executive husband Hal’s death was actually part of a Lehigh Steel coverup. Bubbles convinces publisher Bill Graham to let her investigate. After she’s shot at and stalked, hunky photographer Steve Stiletto stashes Bubbles chastely in the bedroom of his Saucon Valley mansion. From there, the race is on: Will Bubbles nail her story and her man before a killer with cyanide-tipped digits nails her?

Strohmeyer’s sharp dialogue gives her fourth an edge even Bubbles’s clippers can’t match.