Who Killed the Pinup Queen?

This is not P.D. James or Dorothy Sayers. It is a light read for a Summer day on the beach or waiting for train, bus,trolley or plane. It is the work of a professional who strips away plot complications, avoids depth in characters, and hands us a story easily followed...and enjoyed. The heroine, a freelance writer specializing in media subjects, has a few friends, a sister-psychiatrist, and numerous acquaintances. She is not fully drawn. giving the readers room to refine the image. The same is true of her bosom pal and the supporting cast. No more is given than is necessary to allow the reader to fill in the gaps from his/her cast of imaginative characters. The crime is a relatively simple one with none of the complexity, the byways, the symbolism, the multiple facets which send the reader into logical fallacies and bewildering mazes. All in all, not one for the classical mystery fan, but a decent, quickly read, time-filler, which loses little when one is not in a situation allowing concentration and attention to detail and inner meaning.

Tilda Harper is gutsy and tenacious, a persistent reporter with an eye for the big story. Her specialty is nostalgia TV and its obscure former stars. Kelner's latest Tilda book combines pinups and westerns for an excellent mystery.

Tilda is a freelance entertainment reporter whose biggest client is the magazine Entertain Me! She is called into a conference when the stars of Cowtown, a 1950s cowboy TV show talk to her about the western resort they want to build in Massachusetts. Brothers Tucker and Hoyt Ambrose and Cynthia Barth want Tilda to write an article about their resort and find guest stars from their show to make appearances at their resort. Tilda goes to interview 1950s pinup girl Sandra Sschrest known as Sandy Sea Chest. Thanks to Tilda, Sandy has a nice business selling memorabilia on the web from her glory days. Shortly after the interview, Tilda returns to Sandy's home to pick up the camera she left there, but finds the woman dead with blood everywhere. The photos she showed Tilda are missing but Tilda has gotten the pictures for the Cowtown article on the net but someone shoves her into the street and steals the copies she made. When another person associated with Cowtown is killed, Tilda knows the crimes are obviously related, and Tilda intends to find out who the culprit is though someone is watching her and will take care if her if she gets too close to the truth Toni L.P. Kelner has written a fascinating amateur sleuth tale that centers around the pinup girls of the 1950s. People at that time assumed these scantily clad young ladies were bad girls and decades later even with the sexual revolution many refuse to place that vocation on their résumé as they are ashamed. This feeling plays a key role in the homicides as the intrepid reporter diligently investigates the murders. Readers will root for the admirable heroine and seek her previous Where Are They Now investigation, Curse of the Kissing Cousins. Harriet Klausner