Amanda Pepper is a high school teacher in Philadelphia. Although she has a live-in boyfriend (homicide cop C.K. Mackenzie), she is of an age when her friends have been married multiple times, and her own single status is a source of frustration (at least to her mother). When a member of Amanda's book group is found dead of an apparent suicide, the group's suspicions are aroused, and Amanda, in her continuing quest to retrieve her raincoat from the dead woman's house, finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
Roberts has cooked up a solid mystery here. At one point, I felt positive I knew the culprit and was surprised and pleased to discover I was completely wrong. For the avid mystery fan, there is nothing better than the surprise ending. Add to that the fun of reading about Amanda, a character whose evolution throughout this series has been interesting and enjoyable without ever overpowering the mystery plot, and you have a real winner.
My Rorschach take on this book is "How timely!" - what with the US Senate considering the nomination for Attorney General and all. Of course my ink blots and I immediately recognized RvW in Helen's notes.
Gillian Roberts is the nom de mystere of mainstream novelist Judith Greber ... formerly an English teacher in Philadelphia. Philadelphia - of W.C. Field's ironic epitaph, a title in this series that I look forward to reading - in the state that spawned the Casey case.
Greber/Roberts/Pepper is snappy, literate, and articulate without being arcane or pedantic. I yield respectfully to Debra Rothengast's comment in reviewing the previous installment in the Amanda Pepper series: "Once again Ms. Roberts tickles our social conscience without using a heavy hand. A bright and very human Amanda Pepper takes us down familiar streets with new twists. While reaching out to help a student she is sent alone into a spiral of confusion by the world's apathy and her life, both literally and figuratively, is in jeopardy."
