He Was Her Man

Distraught over her ex-boyfriend, Harry's new girlfriend, Samantha Adams, is eager to forget her troubles at a friend's blowout engagement party but finds them multiplying when the prospective groom is kidnapped and held for ransom. 15,000 first printing.

Harry Zach, ex-reporter Samantha Adams's boyfriend (The King is Dead, etc.), has done her wrong, so Sam drives from Atlanta to Hot Springs, Arkansas, hoping to soothe her broken heart in the company of old pal Kitty Lee, at a prenuptial party given by mutual friend Jinx Watson. After winning a million, tax-free, in the Texas lottery, Jinx is about to marry supposedly rich Speed McKay, her third. As she nears her destination, Sam finds comfort in her stop at Gas `N Grub, owned by Olive Adair, a motherly ex-hooker, grandma to handsome Bobby. He's just out of jail after an attack on fascistic local sheriff Archie Blackshears, whose daughter Cynthia Bobby adores. As it turns out, bride-to-be Jinx's mother is Olive's best friend and Olive is also to be a guest at the party. She never shows--and neither does the prospective bridegroom. Sam becomes headily involved in the solving of both disappearances, and a lot more, in a twisting, turning story that defies synopsis but produces a bumper crop of colorful characters, most of them working some kind of scam. A high, wide, and handsome romp--occasionally tinged by melancholy--through a regional subculture brought to vivid life by an author who dares more and gets better with each outing. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Breezy, brash, and filled with down-home humor, Shankman's spirited story of crime reporter turned amateur detective Samantha Adams is a delightful glimpse of life in the land of good ol' boys, languorous southern belles, and Pepsi for breakfast. Recovering from an affair of the heart turned sour, Sam flees her beloved New Orleans for the charms of Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the comforting counsel of her best friend, Kitty. But Sam can't seem to avoid trouble. First, she witnesses a scam in a roadside Gas 'n' Grub. Then she's asked to the engagement party of her old rival, a big-haired Miss Texas wannabe named Jinx Watson, whose millionaire fianc{‚}e is kidnapped in the middle of the festivities. Next, a baby-faced ex-convict asks Sam to find his missing granny. And, finally, Sam is kidnapped by a gangster and wakes up in a boxing ring. Shankman's writing is sometimes overenthusiastic, her characters are occasionally cloying, and her plot is farfetched, but the warmth, humor, and charm of her story overcome the flaws. A fun and amusing read. Emily Melton

Samantha Adams, an investigative reporter on hiatus, returns in rare form. Freshly broken up with much-younger lover Harry in New Orleans, Sam travels to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to talk with best friend Kitty and attend nemesis Jinx's (third) engagement party. A kidnapping stalls the party, Sam and a cross-dressing crook search for his mother and a stolen car, and she cons the ultimate con-artist. Outrageous characters, wonderful Southern dialog, funny situations, and Sam's heartfelt (but passing) misery make for a sure winner.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.