Miss Melville Regrets

Why did it take me so long to find this author?! I have just finished reading all four available Miss Melville books, laughing all the while. You don't have to be a native New Yorker to appreciate Smith's sly puncturing of the pretensions of the upwardly mobile sheep who grab onto anything that seems to be the latest fashionable, upscale trend. You probably don't have to have been raised to behave "properly" to catch the humor in the now self-imposed behavioral restrictions the heroine cannot shake. And if you have been frustrated by all the crime and injustice in the world today, you are going to enjoy the thoroughly (or is it?) preposterous way in which Miss Melville settles with the despicable. The ending of the fourth book, Miss Melville Rides a Tiger, is a bit far-fetched, but that is the only time in all four books that the far-fetched isn't totally fetching. Start with the first in the series, Miss Melville Regrets: it's so well-plotted. And when you finish the fourth, please do me a favor: contact Penguin Books and beg them to publish number five, Miss Melville Runs For Cover, which they have announced for publication at least three times since 1993 but have not yet managed to do.

I love these Miss Melville stories. I can't believe that there are not more of them. This one I had purchased as a gift because I refuse to part with my only copy even as a loan! The idea behind them is hysterical and they are so well written! Evelyne E. Smith, where are you? Bring more on! Connie

I love the thought processes of Miss Melville. She has an interesting view of the world in general and society shenanigans. A sympathetic character with a sense of humor.

She goes to a hotel, avoids people like her, in fancy dress, who are rating prospective association dinners, and then the speaker at the not-very-good meal is dead. And the little old lady "sells" the painting she's just created to a handsome man -- for a lot of money. And hands him the gun she's just used. So goes the life of a professional hit-woman who blundered into the job. Fun reading -- her rationalizations (the victim is always somebody loathsome); her painting; her associates, some of them good friends, some snobs, some dinner-crashers. And the tension when one part of her life merges into another. You'll smile all the way through.

_Miss Melville Regrets_ is a well-written story of an artistic, forty-ish former socialite who becomes a paid assassin. In this highly entertaining first book in the series, Miss Melville -- out of money, out of a job, and soon to be out of a place to live -- decides to kill herself at a banquet to publicize her plight. On impulse, she instead turns her gun on the man being honored at the banquet, a wealthy and uncaring man who has caused some of her misfortune, and kills him neatly and efficiently with a single shot through the forehead. In the hubbub that follows, she is hustled out of the banquet hall by a stranger. He turns out to be a hired assassin who had been assigned to kill the very man Miss Melville had shot. He is so impressed by Miss Melville's skill with a gun that he recruits her as a paid assassin. The remainder of the book recounts her adventures in her new profession and evolves into a mystery as Miss Melville tries to figure out who is the shadowy figure who sponsors the assassinations. One of the most enjoyable parts of the book is learning about the world of banquets. Banquets are usually held to raise money for charity; the people invited are the rich but rather dim social set who have inherited more money than brains. We also learn about people who entertain themselves by crashing these events; for them, it's an opportunity to dress up and get a free meal. Miss Melville's unique position is that she is a member of both groups -- a former socialite who is now penniless. The quality of writing is first-rate. Evelyn E. Smith's language and style are always intelligent, fluid, and correct. Unfortunately, the copy-editing and proof-reading were sloppy; the book abounds in typographical errors. There are three more books in the series: _Miss Melville Returns_, _Miss Melville's Revenge_ (out of print), and _Miss Melville Rides a Tiger_ (also out of print).