Hickory Dickory Stalk - Softcover

Cooper, Susan Rogers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380781557 ISBN 13: 9780380781553

Publisher: Avon Books, 1996

Synopsis

E. J. Pugh, the mother of three and a romance novelist, is being harassed through her computer, her phone lines, and bank account, and she suspects the mischievous boy next door, until his naked corpse is found dead in the Pugh family car. Original.

About this title

Review

Last year the Pugh family suffered from more troubles than most people have in a lifetime. Their best friends were killed, leaving them the custody of their only surviving child. E. J. Pugh had to uncover the murderer before he finishes the job by killing her newest daughter. Now trouble has returned to the Pughs once again. It starts off innocently with a series of 911 calls that the police say came from the Pugh residence, but E. J. knows that it did not originate in her home. She thinks it is just a technological glitch caused by their new cordless phone picking up someone else's calls. The problems escalate when E. J. 's daughter eats a candy left outside that contains glass inside of it. A front door is destroyed. Someone rummages through the family's jewelry. Ads for dates with E. J. are placed in the paper. Pornographic filth appears on E. J. 's computer. All this culminates with the discovery of a sixteen year old neighbor's body found strangled inside E. J. 's car. Anonymous calls threaten E. J. and her children, forcing her to leave the children with her parents. Under siege and near breaking, E. J. decides to hunt down the stalker and end his reign of terror or die in the attempt. Susan Rogers Cooper has written another terrific E. J. Pugh who-done-it mystery that will capture readers' interest from the very first page. There are few authors who can successfully create a creditable crisis scenario involving a normal middle class family, but Ms. Cooper pulls it off so believably readers would be afraid to have the Pugh's as their neighbor. Hickory Dickory Stalk is a must read for lovers of amateur female sleuths just like its prequel, One, Two, What Did Daddy Do?. -- Midwest Book Review

From Publishers Weekly

In her second mystery featuring romance writer E.J. Pugh (after One, Two, What Did Daddy Do?), the suspense begins slowly when prank 911 calls are traced to E.J's home. But it doesn't stop there, and eventually her five-year-old daughter eats a piece of candy spiked with glass. Suspicions focus on a teenage Peeping Tom, until he turns up dead in the back seat of E.J.'s station wagon. Strange neighbors and her husband's overly amorous colleague are among the suspects as threats mount against E.J. and her children. The heroine's sardonic wit and guts will endear her to readers and the tension is kept up throughout. Her Texas setting is freshly rendered, but E.J.'s identity as a romance novelist isn't as convincing?she lacks insight into the genre and repeats derogatory stereotypes that real romance writers studiously avoid.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avon Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0380781557
• ISBN 13: 9780380781553
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 215