Murder at the Class Reunion

Reporter Kay Engles returns to her hometown for her twentieth high-school class reunion and encounters childhood friends, long-buried secrets, and a cold-blooded murderer.

A naive investigative journalist as protagonist and an incidental subplot hamper this predictable first novel. Reporter Kay Engels returns home for her 20th high school reunion where her career as a journalist earns her immediate acceptance in a crowd that had previously shunned her. She attends the party with former cheerleader and dance chairman Sue and her handsome husband Chris, and there teams up with Chris's black sheep cousin Tony and chats with their voluptuous cousin Terry. When Tony finds Terry's body in her hotel room, Kay scuttles her reunion story to concentrate on the murder investigation. The police chief reluctantly gives her information, even though his godchild's former husband may be involved in the crime. Equally under suspicion is Terry's date, who may have ties to organized crime. In an effort to keep Kay from writing about Terry's loose lifestyle, Terry's uncle offers to tell Kay the identity of her real mother--an implication that leaves Kay stunned. Suddenly she must decide whether to compromise her integrity for personal again. The divergent thread of Kay's questionable parentage is never fully developed and clips the momentum of the murder investigation, letting the reader down on both counts.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

You can't go home again, magazine reporter Kay Engels learns when she flies up to Falls City, New York, for her high-school reunion-- only to find her old flame Chris Campbell happily married, his thrice- married cousin Terry carrying on with ever-infatuated Richie McDowell, and a third Campbell cousin, Tony, having to break off his chastely budding romance with Kay when he's accused of Terry's murder. Follow lots more suspicious doings--from Terry's escort revealing well-earned ties to the Chicago mob to Tony's beloved aunt Maggie Prestwick's plan to give her rundown farm back to the Indians--but nothing dampens Kay's spirits for long (``It was a good day, wasn't it? In spite of everything,'' Tony tells her a few hours after finding Terry's corpse), not even the news that she's adopted, or Chief Al LaForge's announcement that Tony is the killer. We know better; it must be somebody with much less nice manners.... Even if first-novelist Stein's Pollyanna-ish prose doesn't capture the Mary Higgins Clark crowd, it's sure to appeal to Nancy Drew loyalists. Maybe you can go back to high school again--especially if you've never left. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

When big-time New York City journalist Kay Engels attends her 20th high school reunion, she hopes to transform the experience into a magazine article. Little does she know that the murder of a promiscuous former classmate will preempt her plans. Instead of writing an article, she must search for information that will exonerate a newfound romantic interest. Despite a few character inconsistencies and a transparent plot, this first mystery provides rather pleasant fare. It boasts a tidy conclusion and a ready-made springboard for the second series title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.