Bluest Blood (Amanda Pepper Mysteries) - Hardcover

Roberts, Gillian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345403266 ISBN 13: 9780345403261

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1998

Synopsis

In her Amanda Pepper mysteries, Gillian Roberts evokes the City of Brotherly Love in all its charm, mischief, and menace. Now she turns her wickedly perceptive eye to the residents of Philadelphia's posh Main Line district, the legendary land of the rich and well-to-do, where the wealthy live their very private lives--and occasionally commit very scandalous crimes.

Aristocratic Philadelphia natives may think the bluest blood in America flows through their veins, but sometimes outsiders with large fortunes can buy their way into this privileged company--and glamorous newcomers Neddy and Tea Roederer have wealth aplenty.

For English teacher Amanda Pepper, the champagne gala on behalf of Philly Prep's library is a night to remember. After all, it is her introduction to ultra-rich society--an evening so extravagant that nothing can tarnish the party . . . not even a group of protesters outside burning the host in effigy.

But Amanda senses deeper trouble, and her intuition is right on target. The Moral Ecologists, who vehemently feel that "reading pollutes the mind," will do anything to advance their agenda. And Amanda's new affluent acquaintances prove to be just as deceitful and violent--as she learns firsthand that the bluest blood bleeds just as red. Especially with murder.

With her customary bons mots, elegant prose, and storytelling prowess, Gillian Roberts upholds her enviable reputation as "the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers . . . giving more wit per page than most writers give per book." *

* Nancy Pickard

About this title

About the Author

Gillian Roberts is the nom de mystère of mainstream novelist Judith Greber. Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery for Caught Dead in Philadelphia, she is also the author of Philly Stakes, I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia, With Friends Like These . . . , How I Spent My Summer Vacation, In the Dead of Summer, and The Mummers' Curse. Formerly an English teacher in Philadelphia, Gillian Roberts now lives in California.

From the Inside Flap

a Pepper mysteries, Gillian Roberts evokes the City of Brotherly Love in all its charm, mischief, and menace. Now she turns her wickedly perceptive eye to the residents of Philadelphia's posh Main Line district, the legendary land of the rich and well-to-do, where the wealthy live their very private lives--and occasionally commit very scandalous crimes.

Aristocratic Philadelphia natives may think the bluest blood in America flows through their veins, but sometimes outsiders with large fortunes can buy their way into this privileged company--and glamorous newcomers Neddy and Tea Roederer have wealth aplenty.

For English teacher Amanda Pepper, the champagne gala on behalf of Philly Prep's library is a night to remember. After all, it is her introduction to ultra-rich society--an evening so extravagant that nothing can tarnish the party . . . not even a group of protesters outside burning the host in effigy.

But Amanda senses deeper trouble, and her intuition is ri

Reviews

If Neddy and Tea Roederer lived in Boston, they wouldn't have to speak to anyone but the Cabots and the Lowells. In Philadelphia, though, their millions can't insulate them from contact with Amanda Pepper's spineless colleagues at Philly Prep, where their adopted son Griffin attends school, or from the Moral Ecologists, the censorship mavens who'd be ludicrous if they weren't so dangerous. Now that Amanda has talked the Roederer Trust into settling a nice piece of change on the Philly Prep library, Neddy and Tea are on a collision course with Moral Ecologist loudmouth Rev. Harvey Spiers--a collision course that begins with the hanging of an effigy and leads up to the real thing. As the Philly Prep staff and the Moral Ecologists (``Don't pollute minds!'') trip over each other in their haste to embarrass themselves, and Amanda and her favorite cop, C.K. Mackenzie, sort out the zanies from the murderers, the unlikely friendship between two lonely boys--Spiers's stepson Jake Ulrich and Griffin Roederer--emerges as the heart of this story. It's a strong heart that, together with Roberts's unusually firm mystery-mongering and pointed use of clues, makes Amanda's eighth case (The Mummers' Curse, 1996, etc.) her finest hour yet. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Something isn't quite right with Philadelphia bluebloods Neddy and Tea Roederer, benefactors of the Philadelphia Prep School library. Philly Prep teacher and amateur sleuth Amanda Pepper sees the first signs in the Roederers' son's glum manner. Then a more urgent problem appears: the crusade of the Reverend Harvey Spiers' book-burning Moral Ecologists--the same Reverend Spiers whose stepson, Jake, is best friends with the Roederers' son. As Amanda talks with both boys, she realizes there are much deeper problems, and when the crusading Reverend Spiers is murdered, she knows things have spun out of control. Amanda finds no shortage of suspects: Spiers' Moral Ecologist rival and erstwhile lover, his hysterical wife, his hulking stepson, even Neddy and Tea. Pepper is an engaging and forthright heroine; there are some nice bits of humor here; and the focus on First Amendment rights and censorship will hit home with librarians and library supporters. Emily Melton

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0345403266
• ISBN 13: 9780345403261
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 230