Mummers' Curse

A good read, with a believable yet unexpected plot. All of Roberts' characters are completely real, and make me want to know them better. What I particularly love is how the main characters grow, the way real people do. I feel like I could send an email to Amanda Pepper and actually get a response, not from her creator, but from a living, breathing Amanda herself.

I don't know what the reviewer who gave the book one star was thinking about and why that person didn't like Amanda Pepper, English teacher and sleuth. I thought the book was very literate, laugh out loud witty (some wonderful lines for those who appreciate dry humor, like the comment about "garden fresh salad" -- is the alternative compost?) The background of the Mummer's Parade in Phildadelphia was fascinating and made me want to go see it for myself (I'd never heard of it). The plot involves Amanda viewing the death of one of the parade participants (she's there watching the parade with her homicide detective boyfriend and her niece). One of the suspects gives Amanda as an alibi -- which obviously isn't going to work given that she wasn't alone during the parade. Amanda gets involved trying to figure out why her teaching colleague would lie about his whereabouts, and before you know it, her research into the mummer's tradition (she had been researching a freelance article before this all happened) gets her involved in the whole mess. It appears that the mummer's group that the deceased belonged to includes some suspects. So the reader is off on a tour of the close-knit South Philly community and its parade clubs. I guess if you don't find that kind of stuff interesting, perhaps you won't like the book. The kind of community described reminded me of Janet Evanovich's New Jersey, but the humor is more of the dry, witty variety and less over the top. If you like well-written literate mysteries with some humor and a bit of romance, I think you'll like this book.

With her usual wit, Gillian Roberts has crafted another winner. The details of the "sub-culture," for lack of a better phrase, of the Italian-Americans in South Philly and of the highly overlapping "sub-culture," again for the lack of a better phrase, of the Mummers are wonderful, if not totally accurate. However, I view this from a Philadelphian's perspective and am not sure that a non-Philadelphian will not be a bit lost in these "cultures." For this reason I gave it only 4 stars although it is my personal favorite of the Amanda Pepper series so far.As expected, the book contains the usual - banter between Amanda and CK about his "real" name, their sometimes conflicts, the expected calls from her Mom, Bea. We also hear from her sister, her brother-in-law, her niece, and her execrable principal and his equally up-tight office assistant. Not to mention a totally obnoxious chiropractor turned radio psychologist.Beyond the wit and the repetoire of literary knowledge displayed in this series, I especially appreciate the characterizations. These are people I know; they live in neighborhoods I know; they shop where I do; go to the same dry cleaners. They eat cheese steaks. They watch the Mummers Parade every New Years Day!!I do not recommend this as a book to start reading the series. Start at the beginning and get to this once in sequence.