Lament for a Lounge Lizard: A Fiona Silk Mystery (Rendezvous Crime) [Paperback]

Mary Jane Maffini (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Fiona Silk Mystery | Publication Date: September 1, 2003

As if it weren't bad enough being a failed romance writer with no sex life, poor Fiona Silk has to cope with the spectacularly embarrassing demise of her old lover, the poet Benedict Kelly in her bed. It's exactly the sort of thing people notice in St. Aubaine, Quebec, a picturesque bilingual tourist town of two thousand. Now the police start getting nasty, the media vans stay parked on her lawn and the neighbors' tongues keep wagging in both official languages. Can Fiona outwit a murderer in the mood for some serious mischief?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For those who enjoy mystery lite, clever plotting, and comic crime, Camilla MacPhee's your kind of sleuth." -- of Little Boy Blues, Ottawa Citizen

"Maffini's story is entertaining, with the quirky characters making us laugh as the story goes along." -- of Little Boy Blues, Reviewingtheevidence.com

From the Inside Flap

As if it weren't bad enough being a failed romance writer with no sex life, poor Fiona Silk has to cope with the spectacularly embarrassing demise of her old lover, the poet, Benedict Kelly. Can Fiona outwit a murderer in the mood for some serious mischief?

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Rendezvous Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894917022
• ISBN-13: 978-1894917025
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mary Jane brings us another sarcastic whodunnit!, July 22, 2004

By 

Jonathan Burgoine "bookseller" (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lament for a Lounge Lizard: A Fiona Silk Mystery (Rendezvous Crime) (Paperback)

Here's the thing - I love Camilla MacPhee. She's cranky, in-your-face, witty, sarcastic as all hell, and always catches the bad guy (usually with the help of her obnoxious ne'er do well secretary, Alvin). I've read the Camilla MacPhee mysteries by Mary Jane Maffini each and every time a new one has come out, since the first time I met her and thought, "Wow, now here's a lady with style."

This book? It's not a Camilla MacPhee mystery. I chewed my lip. I pondered. I bought (of course) and had her autograph it for me, but a small little voice said, "But what if it's not as good as Camilla?"

No worries. First off, Fiona Silk is just as fun a character, albeit in a strikingly different way. Fiona has similar sarcastic comments, but she tends to keep them as thoughts, and she's a pushover for a sob-story (or, indeed, for pretty much any request - she's missing the "just say no!" gene). She's a failed romance writer (and the parts where her "romance novel" is glimpsed by the reader are a real blast), living in the small fictional Quebec town of St. Aubaine, which is resoundingly familiar for those of us nearby another Quebec town, lemme tellya.

Someone offs a man she had an almost fling with eight-nine years ago, and leaves him naked in her bed, with a crazy-glue applied sly grin to greet her. Fiona's alibi of being three-sheets-to-the-wind, not to mention her passing out drunk when she saw him and not reporting it until the morning, leave her a little bit in the lurch. So, with the police after her, gossip lingering, and the media hot on her tail, Fiona has to get over being a pushover, before someone else pushes her over permanently.

Delightful, funny, and - as always - full of a razor sarcastic wit, Mary Jane Maffini once again delivers a grand little mystery. I do look forward to the next Fiona Silk... just please, a Camilla first?

'Nathan