The Jinx (Rachel Benjamin Mysteries, No. 2) [Paperback]

Jennifer Sturman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005

When everything's going right, it's a sure sign that things are about to go very, very wrong.

Rachel Benjamin's life might look glamorous but she has worked into the early morning on more nights, canceled more weekend plans and slept in more Holiday Inns in small industrial towns than she cares to count. (Standard practice in the business of mergers and acquisitions.) And that picture of her on the recent cover of Fortune? It inspired a reprise of her grandmother's favorite lecture, the one titled "You don't want to be one of those career gals, do you?" (Other popular hits include "Have you met anyone nice?" and "I just want to go to a wedding before I die.")

But this week Rachel's job is taking her to Boston, where in between work obligations she plans to squeeze in quality time with her promising new boyfriend. They've just hit the six-month mark and things are going so well, Rachel's not even worried anymore that she'll jinx it.

There are just a few little problems: Her friend's been attacked and a serial killer is on the loose -- and the two might actually be related. Oh, and her promising new boyfriend? He seems to be squeezing in quality time with his new gazelle-like, model-material colleague . . . Now Rachel's making like Miss Marple again, trying to track down her friend's assailant -- not to mention get a clue about her relationship. When she stopped worrying about jinxing things, did she jinx everything?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Just as investment banker Rachel Benjamin is poised to enjoy a week in Boston mixing a little business with a lot of pleasure, the "Jinxing Gods" strike again. First she discovers that her new boyfriend, Peter Forrest, seems to be too interested in his lovely new "assistant." Then one of Rachel's clients, Sara Grenthaler, is savagely beaten, quite possibly by the same serial killer who has been murdering prostitutes in the Boston area. To undo the havoc wrecked by the Jinxing Gods, Rachel, with a little help from her four best gal pals and sexy college professor Jonathan Beasley, sets out not only to discover what connection, if any, there may be between the assault on Sara and the takeover attempt of her family's media company but also what, if any, connection remains with Peter. After debuting in The Pact (2004), Rachel returns for another smart and saucy adventure in sleuthing and romance in Sturman's second fresh, funny, and fabulously amusing chick-lit mystery. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

". . . well-placed cliffhangers, a careful distribution of motives and unexpected twists promise readers light, satisfying suspense." -- Publishers Weekly

"Sex and the City meets Agatha Christie! Jennifer Sturman's an exciting new voice in mystery fiction." -- Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries

"Sturman's debut is a rare delight, and her sharp, sassy writing is wonderfully addictive." -- Booklist on The Pact

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 313 pages
• Publisher: Red Dress Ink (December 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373895402
• ISBN-13: 978-0373895403
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,340,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing follow up to "The Pact", April 20, 2006

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jinx (Rachel Benjamin Mysteries, No. 2) (Paperback)

Rachel Benjamin is back (last seen in "The Pact")! Investment banker by trade, and frustrated wanna-be sleuth, she has definitely seen far too many Agatha Christie movies!

She is tapped by her firm to recruit new graduates at her alma mater, Harvard. She and her four gal-pals coincidentally are having an annual get-together and her long distance boyfriend Peter will be in from San Francisco for a glorious week attending a conference, leaving them plenty of time to cuddle. Of course, a wrench is thrown into her plans. The Boston police are baffled by a series of murders and a client is injured in what may be a copycat attack by a stalker who writes bad poetry.

While putting on her investigator's cap, she devotes all her time to the stalking victim, whose company is in the throes of a hostile takeover. Rachel manages to spend little time with the new recruits; less time with her girlfriends, and no time with Peter, who is busy schmoozing a client with his very sexy assistant. She spends more time with Jonathan, a former crush who is now a professor.

While an interesting premise, the execution of the story is lacking. The group of friends, who were interesting in the first novel, don't have a whole lot to do here and it is difficult to tell them apart. In fact, if this was a movie, all would be combined to make one composite character. And I too was a little tired of hearing about her Diet Coke addiction.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fine tale, November 30, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jinx (Rachel Benjamin Mysteries, No. 2) (Paperback)

Winslow, Brown investment banker Rachel Benjamin piles up the frequent flyer miles working mergers and acquisitions. Her boyfriend Peter Forrest works across the continent in San Francisco, but soon will join Rachel in Boston where she is on assignment and he is attending a conference. Over the six months together they have seen each other when either is on the other coast or over holidays at the homes of relatives.

Rachel thinks this relationship is going to last, which surprises her because usually her confidence is zero when it comes to the staying power of men. However, she is concerned that Peter's assistant Abigail is beautiful, brainy, and on the left coast. . Already thinking of trailing Peter, Rachel becomes sidetracked when someone attacks her friend Sara who lands in the hospital. Unable to ignore the PACT she made with Sara and three other friends back in college, Rachel combines the two situations into a big investigation to uncover who battered Sara and whether Peter is cheating with Abigail, not knowing which one is more dangerous to her heath.

With a pinch of chick lit as Rachel wonders if she is THE JINX in her relationships (Murphy looks optimistic next to her), this is a fine amateur sleuth romance. The story line focuses on the dichotomy of Rachel's mindset as she is a successful business woman (made it on Fortune magazine cover) but lacks confidence in love. The who-done-it with hints of a serial killer lurking and further assaults on Sara pending is deftly handled with a neat twist as Rachel investigates to protect her friend. Her inquiries into Peter and Abigail also include a delightful twist. Fans will appreciate this fine tale.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, September 23, 2006

By 

Hawaiian Eye "Hawaiian Eye" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jinx (Rachel Benjamin Mysteries, No. 2) (Paperback)

I really wanted to love this; the premise was so good. But from page 1, it's all back story and asides. The story took a looong time to take off and then it wasn't very entertainingly written. It would have benefitted from some ruthless editing and a human doing the spell check. The typos were sloppy and inexcusable. One character "loses a tone of weight." Spell check won't catch that, but a real editor should have...the complaints keep going. Sorry, but this one's a snoozefest. Excellent for the insomniac in your life.