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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | STROHMEYER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS STROHMEYER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
The irrepressible heroine of Sarah Strohmeyer's Agatha Award-winning series makes her usual headline-grabbing entrance just in time to heat up Pennsylvania's coal country-in another rip-roaring tale of murder and mayhem. Bubbles Ablazefinds the redoubtable Ms. Bubbles Yablonsky heeding a call from her boss at the News-Timesand racing her Camaro toward a potentially big news story. But when she arrives at an abandoned coal mine, she finds the love of her life, Steve Stiletto, knocked unconscious . . . and the body of another man with a sizeable hole in his chest. Moments later, Bubbles and Stiletto are trapped by an explosion. Convinced that someone wants them dead, they search for their intended assassin in coal country, where they uncover a conspiracy at the Main Mane hairdressing salon, a cadre of women known as the Sirens of Slagville, and a hot spot called Limbo that's been burning underground for forty years. With a cast of characters headed by the usual suspects-Bubbles's brainy teenage daughter Jane; Jane's clueless boyfriend G; and that dynamite duo, her mother LuLu and paranoid sidekick Genevieve- and led by the singular Bubbles herself, this is another fast and furious tale that will keep readers in Limbo-and in stitches.
Author Notes
Sarah Strohmeyer grew up in Bethlehem, PA, & is a former newspaper reporter. Her previous book is "Barbie Unbound: A Parody of the Barbie Obsession". She lives outside of Montpelier, VT, with her husband & two children.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Agatha winner Strohmeyer provides lots of madcap fun in her third book (after 2002's Bubbles in Trouble) to feature budding reporter/detective/hairdresser Bubbles Yablonsky. Lured into an unused Pennsylvania coal mine, Bubbles and her "Mel Gibson dead ringer" photographer boyfriend, Steve Stiletto, narrowly escape harm in a cave-in right after they stumble on car-sales magnate Bud Price with "a six-inch bloody hole blown into the middle of his chest." They also find the abandoned car of Bubbles's cousin-in-law, Carl "Stinky" Koolball, the cartographer for McMullen Coal, the company that owns the mine. And now Stinky's missing. The plot thickens like a vat of kapusta as more and more ingredients are added-perhaps too many. On top of her crime-solving, Bubbles must deal with her rebellious teenage daughter, her biker-chick mother's vendetta over some stolen Polish recipes, and a clean-cut stud named Zeke who keeps following her. Some lines are laugh-out-loud funny. Asked if she knows who John Gotti was, Bubbles is "almost positive [he] ran a pizza parlor in Allentown." The dumb-blonde schtick works well with the whole loony business, and Strohmeyer's sharp eye for styles and regional details (Tastykakes, scrapple) adds to the realism and the charm. Agent, Heather Schroder at ICM. (June 30) Forecast: Dressed in blonde wig and stiletto heels like her heroine, Strohmeyer draws increasing crowds on her author tours. Her publisher is betting that Bubbles will be the next Stephanie Plum, her obvious prototype, but Strohmeyer's writing needs to be more disciplined, less scattershot before Janet Evanovich fans come over in big numbers. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Those perennial rivals, love and ambition, clash anew as a hairdresser and would-be reporter struggles to earn a full-time berth on the Lehigh News-Times. Waiting between the red satin sheets of the Passion Peak Resort for gorgeous Associated Press photographer Steve Stiletto to satisfy the desires of her heart, among other organs, Bubbles Yablonsky (Bubbles in Trouble, 2002, etc.) gets a fax; her editor wants her to cover a breaking story at McMullen Coal's Number Nine mine. Hightailing it to Slagville, she finds her cousin Carl "Stinky" Koolball's Lexus parked outside Number Nine and a very dead car-dealer named Bud Price parked inside, along with a live but slightly dented Stiletto. The sweethearts narrowly escape a cave-in intended to send both their names to the obit desk, then rush off in opposite directions (after all, they work for rival news agencies). Stiletto roars off with ex-model Esmeralda Greene, AP's rising star. Bubbles trots down to Main Street where her cousin Roxanne--the now-AWOL Stinky's wife--runs a salon out of her living room. Joined by her leather-clad mother LuLu and mom's survivalist sidekick Genevieve, Bubbles ventures into Limbo, where conspiracy theorist Pete Zudakis lives atop a still-burning underground coal fire; where Price had hoped to build a casino; and where she finds a secret darker than coal, scarier than her mother's latest hairdo, and sure to require a skin-of-her-hot-pants rescue. Better-than-usual mystery beneath the manic-as-usual Strohmeyer mayhem. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Bubbles Yablonsky (Bubbles Unbound, Bubbles in Trouble), hairdresser and wannabe big-story reporter, bumbles her way through another engaging puzzle involving murder. Bubbles and her almost-lover Steve, an AP photographer, happen upon a body in a disused Pennsylvania coal mine. They barely escape with their lives when the mine explodes, but Steve breaks the story while Bubbles hunts for an angle. She finally writes an expos? about the local coal company stealing coal from someone else's property. Bubbles consequently attracts "bodyguard" assistance from her wacko mother, her mother's blowgun-toting sidekick, and Steve's buff ex-con friend. Yes, there are dumb, blond hairdresser jokes but bustling action, and well-meaning confusion, too. For most collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.