Murderers Prefer Blondes

The year is 1954, and twenty-eight-year-old Paige Turner is trying to make her mark on the male-dominated literary world at "Daring Detective" magazine. Unfortunately, she can't get her gruff boss to allow her to do much more than clip the newspaper, make coffee, and edit her co-workers stories. So, when Paige comes across the murder of twenty-four-year-old Babs Comstock, a beauty who was strangled with a Hopalong Cassidy jump rope, she decides that now is her chance to break one of the biggest stories of the year. Now, armed with nothing more than a pen, a good pair of high heels, and a blonde wig, Paige has hit the New York City pavement, and is uncovering more secrets about the lives of the rich and famous than she ever thought existed. Now she just has to figure out which one of her suspects did the dirty deed, before the murderer decides that it's time to kill a brunette. A brunette with perfect grammar, and a funny name. Amanda Matetsky is one of the best new authors to hit the mystery scene in years. I determined this when I read MURDER IS A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND - the second book in the series, which I read first - and have only come to realize it more, upon completing MUDERERS PREFER BLONDES. Paige Turner is an exciting female protagonist, whose nose for news, and amateur sleuthing skills make her an appealing character; while the set-up of 1950's New York makes for a charming backdrop to the tale, complete with nostalgia speckled in every corner. An on-the-edge-of-your-seat page turner that will leave you hungry for more. Erika Sorocco Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

I read the second in the series before this one, and I think the second was a bit better, but I was not disappointed at all with this one. Korean War widow Paige Turner (and yes, people comment on her name, particularly since she works for a real crime stories magazine) lives in 1954 or so in Greenwich Village (NYC). Although she wants to be a writer for the magazine, she is stuck being underpaid and undervalued because she's a woman. She decides to write a story for the magazine and then they'll be able to see how talented she is. So when a woman she has met briefly is murdered, Paige goes to work trying to find out enough about the crime to write a story about it. Needless to say, she's busy investigating the case in no time at all, which puts her at some peril from a variety of people, including but not limited to the murderer. WHat I liked best was the sense of time and place, but the endearing characters are a close second. You really feel like you're right there and that these are people you know (Paige has a beatnik neighbor Abby who is her sounding board and able helper, not to mention offering her refuge when it gets too dangerous for Paige to be alone in her apartment). This is probably a woman's mystery (is that a fault?) because it really does describe a world where women's choices (but only if she was single) were limited to nurse, secretary, or teacher. I look forward to reading more in the series.

This is truly comic art -- comic detective art, intricate Dick Tracy art tossed together with Superman, the unprepossessing Clark Kent in Lenny Zimmerman with his dark hair and "bottle-thick glasses." Heroine Paige Turner is delightful as would-be detective in this spoof on detective stories, and still Matetsky holds the reader in real suspense right up to the end. I don't know if she has invented a new genre or taken an existing detective story approach farther, faster and funnier than it's been taken before, but this book is delicious.

I loved this book. It is a delightful mystery, with a bit of romance thrown in. The protagonist, Paige Turner, is an irresistable character... irreverent, but likeable, and FUNNY. This is the type of book I pick up when I want to relax, forget MY life and become totally engrossed in someone else's. I read it straight through and enjoyed every minute.

After eloping, Bob and Paige Turner moved into a small Brooklyn apartment for a month of connubial bliss before he went to boot camp and ended up in a firefight in Korea where he got killed. Two and a half years later, his widow Paige is living in a small duplex apartment on Delancey Street working as an editorial assistant for Daring Detective magazine. Paige's real goal is to be a staff writer and create true crime stories but in 1954 women were regarded as capable of only being office help.When Babs Costock's murdered body is found in Woolworth's and her picture is run in the newspapers, Paige recognizes her as a woman who came to the magazine's office in the hopes of getting a job modeling for the cover. Paige thinks she's found the story that can get her a promotion so she starts investigating the victim's life. She learns the down side of a case of her own life is threatened more than once by various characters who want her to stop snooping.The first Paige Turner mystery is a real page-turner. Anyone who has lived in New York City in the fifties will realize that the author has captured the essence of the time and place. The protagonist is a gutsy and strong willed woman who refuses to let the male dominated power elite keep her down or stop her from getting what she wants. MURDERERS PREFER BLONDES is a delightful historical amateur sleuth tale that is very atmospheric and plays up the nostalgia angle.Harriet Klausner