From Publishers Weekly
This breezy mystery, the third in the Stella the Stargazer series (A Love to Die For; You Bet Your Life), gets off to a quick start when Stella (formerly Jane Austin Smith, accountant), narrowly escapes being crushed by a white van. Witty, smart and utterly brazen, Stella writes an enormously popular astrological column for a Denver newspaper and has been receiving threatening letters. But, after her close call, she quickly puts aside her anxieties to help her best friend, Meredith Spenser, who is charged with the murder of her lover, Tony DeAngelo. Tony, owner of an upscale beauty parlor and spa, was electrocuted while having a foot bath?and a distraught Meredith was seen holding the cord. On the run after surviving yet another attempt on her life, Stella still manages to interrogate (and antagonize) a host of suspects in Tony's murder, and, while ferreting out pertinent information, takes comfort from a constant diet of junk food and the tiny presence of her pet chameleon, Fluffy. Her psychic trances, an integral part of the story, often point her in the wrong direction, but Stella proves herself a feisty sleuth. Because she's more blundering than brilliant, Stella often has cause to thank her lucky stars for seeing her through her hair-raising adventures.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA. Stella Stargazer, writer of an astrology-based love-advice column for a small Denver newspaper, suddenly finds herself mixed up in efforts to save a friend from a womanizing hairdresser. As Stella becomes more deeply involved, events escalate into blackmail, threats on her life, and murder. Led through a maze of red herrings, parallel plots, and her own personal life entanglements, Stella finds answers that prove her own conclusions to be right. Jorgensen individualizes the many characters with well-drawn descriptions that include physical details, personality quirks, and unique behaviors. The action doesn't stop until the last page. The easy-to-read text features dialogue natural enough to suggest actual conversations. The ending contains the needed catharsis to complete the story, even for readers who figure out "whodunit." This book offers a sleuthing style similar to that of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone or Carolyn G. Hart's Annie Darling, and humor akin to the type used by Joan Hess in her "Claire Malloy" mysteries. It should appeal to YAs who flock to these or similar authors.?Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
