How I Spent My Summer Vacation [Mass Market Paperback]

Gillian Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 1996

"DELIGHTFUL...COLORFUL...Roberts plunks her mystery amid the glitter and grime of casino life."
--L.A. Daily News
After a tough year of teaching at Philly Prep, Amanda Pepper decides to go to Atlantic City with her friend, Sasha Berg. Yet a beach vacation turns deadly when a bludgeoned corpse shows up in their hotel room--and Sasha is the prime suspect.
So Amanda hits the boardwalk to track down the real killer, chasing down clues around the surf and in the casinos, and discovering along the way that appearances are more than deceiving: they can be criminal and, sometimes, downright murderous....
"Roberts combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages in an entertaining whole."
--Publishers Weekly
"The Dorothy Parker of mystery writers."
--Nancy Pickard
"Gillian Roberts is a mystery reader's dream come true."
--Lia Matera

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Philadelphia teacher Amanda Pepper is vacationing with Sasha Berg, a woman photographer friend willing to share the hotel room she will occupy while working in Atlantic City. On arrival, their hotel gives them a free upgrade to a luxurious, high-roller ' s suite. After Sasha heads out for a dinner date, Amanda departs with policeman C. K. Mackenzie, her significant other who is in town on a case. They're roused by a 1 a.m. call from Sasha, who has found a dead man in the suite and been arrested for murder. Suspecting that Sasha has been framed, Amanda tries to track down her friend's date and to learn if the victim, who ran his own investment firm, truly deserved his "man-of-the-year type" reputation. Besides getting help from her beau, Amanda is assisted by two spunky women--Georgette, who lives on the beach, and Lala (for lollapalooza), an older widow engaged in a husband-snaring scheme--who add ginger and depth to the tale. Aside from a finale that finds Amanda surrounded by a crowd of tourists that seem too dim even to operate slot machines, Roberts ( With Friends Like These ) combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages--about women and poverty--in an entertaining whole. Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selection; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Not only is Philly Prep teacher Amanda Pepper able to launch her vacation with a free junket to Atlantic City, ``America's Number One Vacation Destination,'' but she and her photographer friend Sasha Berg, in town for a shoot, get a breathtaking upgrade at their casino hotel. The only fly in the ointment is financial advisor Jesse Reese, to whose usual suite they've been moved--and who seems so determined to hang on to it that he turns up bludgeoned to death in Sasha's bed. When witnesses identify Sasha as the woman on Reese's arm on his way up to the suite, and Sasha's alibi turns out to be anything but a stand-up guy (a glaring loose end, this), the police move to downgrade her accommodations. It's up to Mandy (With Friends Like These..., 1993) and her sometime lover, Philly cop C.K. Mackenzie, to smash the frame--though C.K. proves to be little help. As Mandy uncovers evidence of Reese's schemes to defraud trusting senior citizens on a grand scale, she starts to see so many of the locals as potential scam victims- -Reese's brassy widow, Poppy; his former partner, Ray Palford; a homeless woman named Georgette who jealously guards her stretch of the boardwalk--that you'd think the town had hung out a banner for a Fleeced by Reese convention. So the mystery's not much of a stretch for Mandy, despite a lineup of zany suspects who keep popping up as abruptly as jack-in- the-boxes...or casino staffers. As usual, Roberts's sprightly heroine is much more engaging than the story she has to tell. (Literary Guild/Mystery Book Club selections) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (October 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517172992
• ISBN-13: 978-0517172995
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,478,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sasha Is The Leading Suspect, July 13, 2002

By 

Peter Kenney (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Spent My Summer Vacation (An Amanda Pepper mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

When Amanda goes on vacation in Atlantic City with her friend Sasha Berg, a corpse ends up in their hotel room. In this case Sasha is the leading suspect. In order to clear Sasha, Amanda has to scour the boardwalk and the casinos.

I have enjoyed all of the Amanda Pepper Books. HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION was no exception.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little heavy handed for my taste.., November 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: How I Spent My Summer Vacation (An Amanda Pepper mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

I love the Amanda Pepper series, but I could have done without the moralizing in this installment. I love mysteries that transport you to another place for a few hours, not preach about the dangers of casinos, and the need for women to save more to avoid becoming the bag lady under the steps on the Boardwalk! Hopefully the author will get back to what she's best at...mystery minus the soapbox!

4.0 out of 5 stars How I Spent My Summer Vacation, January 13, 2009

By 

H. Garvey "Mystery Buff" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How I Spent My Summer Vacation (An Amanda Pepper mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

Another winner from my current favorite author. Reading Ms Roberts' prose is a pleasure over and above the story itself - which is saying quite a bit. Her characters are so real I'd half-expect to meet them on my next trip to Philadelphia.