Looks to Die For

Add to your list of accomplished woman amateur sleuths, Janice Kaplan's creation. She is an interior decorator who doesn't get to see many clients as she deals with the arrest of her plastic surgeon husband for murder. As is true of other females forced to enter situations of danger to save a loved one, she often gets in over her head. This doesn't deter her the next time circumstances cry out for her to do something helpful for one of her family, There is wit here, suspense as well. Occasionally, one is forced to ask, haven't you had enough trouble ? Why are you going to see THAT man alone. No use. Off she goes. The writing is clear, straightforward and amusing. If career woman sleuths are your dish, mix Kaplan into your stew.

I look for books that are fun to read in the gazebo, in the California sunny breezy days....the sort that make you temporarily forget foolish little stresses, and even life's occasional awful disappointments, for a while. La-dee-dah.... take me away, engage my intelligence and drift me to "another place". In this case, not that far away, I could drive there pretty fast. Thats' fun too - recognizing REAL places and names of streets you know. The author should invent me some people I can click with - and some people I don't like and twists & turns that make me pick up the book again. The author did that..thanks!

"Murder happens even in Beverly Hills and Kaplan - author of the Botox Diaries - delivers a great whodunit. When Lacy Fields husband-who happens to be a famous plastic surgeon, is accused of murder, Lacy must use her combination of style and beauty to prove his innocence."

And this book does a great job of capturing the way we live (in all its glory and all its silly excess) on the West Side of L.A. Lacy is a great character, and I look forward to reading her further adventures (this HAS to be part of a series).

The writer introduces a delightful protagonist, both wacky and insightful, who gets through all sorts of unexpected twists as she attempts to free her husband from his criminal charges. I thought Lacy's relationships with her son and her daughter were funny and real. I know this is 'chick-lit', but Lacy proves to be a woman of substance. I hope we get to read more of her in the future.