The Mummers' Curse: An Amanda Pepper Mystery (SIGNED)

Roberts, Gillian

ISBN 10: 0345403231 / ISBN 13: 9780345403230

Published by Ballantine Books, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A., 1996

About this Item

FIRST EDITION. FIRST PRINTING. AUGUST 1996. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. BOOK DESCRIPTION: 1/4 BLACK CLOTH HARDBOUND, BLUE BOARDS, GILT TITLE ON SPINE COVER, COLOR ILLUSTRATED DUST JACKET. DIMENSIONS: 9 1/2" x 6 1/2" x 7/8." BOOK AND DUST JACKET CONDITION: FINE. Seller Inventory # 001060

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Mummers' Curse: An Amanda Pepper Mystery...

Publisher: Ballantine Books, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.

Publication Date: 1996

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

"Here's the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers . . . giving more wit per page than most writers give per book."
--Nancy Pickard
In her new novel starring Philadelphia schoolteacher Amanda Pepper, Gillian Roberts once again mixes mystery and mirth. This time Roberts explores Philadelphia's unique flesh and blood "historical monument"-- the Mummers, who live (and perhaps are willing to die) for a few hours of glory every New Year's Day.
The famous Mummers' Parade is an extravaganza that draws enormous crowds who cheer through chattering teeth, as more than thirty thousand clowns, string bands, and fancy brigades strut their stuff up Broad Street. But this year, while the music blares and the Mummers dance, a reveling Pierrot suddenly sinks to the ground, shot dead.
Amanda is, at first, only a horrified spectator. But when the prime suspect--her friend and fellow teacher at Philly Prep--falsely claims to have been with her at the time of the murder, Amanda can no longer stay on the sidelines.
Is the murder a flare-up of deadly rivalries? Is it connected with the disappearance, the week before Christmas, of another Mummer, the heir to a meat-packing family? Does someone disapprove of the Mummers' feathers, sequins, and string bands? And why is no one in the tight-knit world Amanda investigates willing to tell the truth about anything?
With Amanda on the scene, the who in whodunit doesn't stay secret for long. In The Mummers' Curse, Gillian Roberts is, as always, at the head of the parade.

From the Publisher:

Even before I became her editor, starting with her third mystery novel, I was enamored of Gillian Roberts and the Philadelphia-set series she writes about schoolteacher Amanda Pepper. (The author herself was once a schoolteacher in Philadelphia, so she knows whereof she writes.) Gillian's debut, CAUGHT DEAD IN PHILADELPHIA, justly won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. And subsequent installments confirmed the promise of that first book. What's special about all the Amanda Pepper novels is Amanda's voice (i.e., Gillian's first-person narration): wry, commonsensical, and with commentary that alternates between compassionate and laugh-aloud funny. Maybe the best way to describe the appeal of Gillian Roberts is to quote another top-echelon crime novelist, Nancy Pickard, who says, "Here's the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers, laughing even when -- especially when -- it hurts, and giving more wit per page than most writers give per book." All I'll add is: don't miss Gillian Roberts!

--Joe Blades, Associate Publisher