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Overview
Miranda "Rannie" Bookman—43, divorced mother of two, with a recent love life consisting of a long string of embarrassingly brief encounters—is beginning to feel like a dangling participle: connected to nothing. Her career as a copyeditor is down the toilet (she makes one little slip—a missing "l" from the last word in the title of the Nancy Drew classic The Secret of the Old Clock—and suddenly she's Publishing Enemy #1!), so she's been forced to take any gig she can get. And that means giving tours at the Chapel School, the ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive, private academy that her children attend. Certainly not the most interesting of employments . . . at least until someone stumbles across the dead body of the Director of College Admissions.
Investigating a murder was never in her job description, but with her soon-to-be-college-bound boy Nate a prime suspect, Rannie has little choice. Besides, who better to dot all the "i"s and cross all the "t"s than a self-proclaimed "language cop"? Her diligence might even lead her to a brand-new love. Or to a killer. Or to another corpse—hopefully not her own.
Synopsis
Miranda "Rannie" Bookman—43, divorced mother of two, with a recent love life consisting of a long string of embarrassingly brief encounters—is beginning to feel like a dangling participle: connected to nothing. Her career as a copyeditor is down the toilet (she makes one little slip—a missing "l" from the last word in the title of the Nancy Drew classic The Secret of the Old Clock—and suddenly she's Publishing Enemy #1!), so she's been forced to take any gig she can get. And that means giving tours at the Chapel School, the ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive, private academy that her children attend. Certainly not the most interesting of employments . . . at least until someone stumbles across the dead body of the Director of College Admissions.
Investigating a murder was never in her job description, but with her soon-to-be-college-bound boy Nate a prime suspect, Rannie has little choice. Besides, who better to dot all the "i"s and cross all the "t"s than a self-proclaimed "language cop"? Her diligence might even lead her to a brand-new love. Or to a killer. Or to another corpse—hopefully not her own.
The New York Times - Chelsea Cain
The book recovers from an awkward start. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, many of them narcissistic, crass teenage twits…But O'Connor gets the story rolling and treats us to a neat little murder mystery. It's hard not to love a book in which grammar features as a clue to the identity of a killer.
Editorials
Chelsea Cain
The book recovers from an awkward start. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, many of them narcissistic, crass teenage twits…But O'Connor gets the story rolling and treats us to a neat little murder mystery. It's hard not to love a book in which grammar features as a clue to the identity of a killer.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Wielding "her weapon of choice, a lethally sharpened Cole-erase blue pencil," Miranda "Rannie" Bookman makes a dynamic sleuth in O'Connor's lively romantic suspense debut. The plucky freelance copyeditor and single mom is shocked when her son, Nate, becomes a suspect in the murder of A. Lawrence "Tut" Tutwiler, director of college admissions for the exclusive Chapel School on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Parents will kill to get their kids into "Chaps," where Nate's a senior and Rannie's taken a temporary part-time job. Will Chaps students also kill to get into the right university? Has recovering addict and former student Grant Werner come back for revenge? Or is the S.W.A.K. serial killer stalking the Upper West Side now targeting Chaps's faculty members? O'Connor, a veteran children's book author (Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy), proves she can also please adults with a fresh, grammatically correct crime solver equally adept at deleting dangling participles and exposing psychotic killers. (Aug.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationSchool Library Journal
Adult/High School -Miranda Bookman is disappointed with the state of her life. Divorced with two kids, she has ambled through a string of shallow and short-lived romances. Perhaps most embarrassing is her public exit from the publishing world as a result of an editing mistake in the title of a "Nancy Drew" novel. But Rannie's life begins to take on the drama and excitement of a real-life mystery after the suspicious death of the director of college admissions at her son's upscale private academy, Chapel School. Her current job of giving tours to applicant families at Chaps gives Rannie the opportunity to explore the mystery of this soon-to-be murder investigation. However, murder isn't the only puzzle in her life. Her new relationship with Tim Butler, the father of another student, is clouded by the secrecy surrounding his widowhood and exit from the police force. In addition to Rannie's own emerging steamy relationship, there is a romantic plot involving her teenage son will intrigue romance fans. The ritzy Manhattan setting is almost a subplot as well; it is sure to attract fans of Cecily von Ziegesar's "Gossip Girl" series (Little, Brown). Ultimately, readers will be satisfied by the dangerous, nail-biting ending.-Lynn Rashid, Marriots Ridge High School, Marriotsville, MD
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.