A stand-alone mystery in the Jacqueline Kirby mystery series.
Format: Audio
Length: 9 hours 13 minutes
Publication year: 1984
Narrated by: Grace Colin
Jacqeline Kirby is a librarian from Nebraska. She's bored with her life and her lover, so she heads to New York City to the annual Historical Romance Writers of the World convention. She hasn't read many romances but her lover thoughtfully gives her two best-sellers to read during her flight. In NYC, she meets quirky characters, one old friend, and eventually, someone is murdered. Except that the death looks like natural causes so not everyone is convinced that the person was murdered. Jacqueline is on the case.
Peters clearly had a lot of fun writing this one. She wrote romances and she's clearly been to romance conventions. She created a lot of quirky characters. Among them is a best-selling writer who is very afraid that someone will recognize her because she's a literature teacher. She believes her academic career would be over. Another is a journalist who is trying to dig up dirt about the writers because romance books promote rape and oppress women. Another is a rare male romance writer who is young and handsome and the fans won't leave him alone. Of course, there's also an agent who takes more than her own share from the writers' earnings and is blackmailing some of them.
This is a cozy mystery, so not fast-paced. The murder happens around halfway through the book. Still, this was an entertaining read even though not as good as the Amelia Peabody books. Jacqueline is an independent woman and doesn't rely on anyone else. She carries a handbag that seems to contain half the world.
The narrator pronounces Jacqueline's name the way that an American would, rather than a French. This is the third book in the series but can be read as a stand-alone.
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