Maggie Needs An Alibi (Maggie Kelly Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Kasey Michaels (Author)

Book Description

Series: Maggie Kelly Mysteries | Publication Date: July 1, 2002

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kasey Michaels offers a snappy, sexy--and completely original--new take on comic mystery with the first book in a new series. Maggie Kelly is nothing if not resilient. She bounced back after getting fired from her old job as a writer of historical romances, reinventing herself as a mystery author. She bounced back when she discovered her lover--who also happened to be her publisher--cheating on her. But something just happened that's got tough-talking, quick-thinking Maggie swooning into her super-soft sofa cushions. Something in the form of an incredibly sexy Englishman by the name of Saint Just. Tall, dark, handsome, with an accent to die for and charm to spare, he's everything she's ever dreamed of in a man. There's just one problem. He is her dream man. He's the character who's made her a bestselling author. He's not real. However, now he's actually standing in the middle of Maggie's apartment--with the adorable, bumbling sidekick she created expressly for him right by his side. But just as Maggie's getting used to her new houseguests, things start to get quite a bit more complicated--in the "homicide" sense of the word. It seems her ex-lover, Kirk Toland, has had the nerve to die right there in her living room. . .of poisoning. . .after eating a dinner Maggie made. And if that weren't weird enough, Toland's death is followed by the murder of a colleague whom everyone knows Maggie hated. So now, the mystery writer has become the murder suspect. And the only sleuth who's really on Maggie's side is the one she invented!

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prolific historical romance writer Michaels (The Hopechest Bride) breaks into a new genre, thanks to an audacious premise with deliciously funny results. Maggie Kelly, midlist writer of historical romance, got dumped by her publisher when her sales figures didn't rise fast enough, so she reinvented herself as a mystery writer. Making use of her historical background, she created a Regency aristocrat-detective, Alexandre Blake, Viscount Saint Just, giving him an endearing, bumbling sidekick, Sterling Balder. Having quickly become a bestseller, Maggie is polishing up her latest when suddenly her two characters step out of her imagination and into her life. At first she thinks she's hallucinating, but she rapidly realizes that Saint Just and Balder really have come to life. It's one thing to write about the adventures of a gorgeous, arrogant and condescending hero; it's another entirely to have to live day to day with the man himself. When Maggie's former lover and current publisher, Kirk Toland, dies after eating a dinner Maggie prepared for him, Maggie is the chief suspect in a very nasty murder mystery for which she can't write the ending. Predictably, Saint Just insists on playing hero and trying to solve the murder, while Maggie tries to keep anyone from figuring out who (and what) he really is. Michaels handles it all with great aplomb, gaily satirizing the current state of publishing, slowly building the romantic tension between Maggie and her frustratingly real hero, and providing plenty of laughs for the reader.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The last thing historical mystery writer Maggie Kelly needs in her hectic life is an arrogant man. But when brilliant aristocratic sleuth Alexandre Blake, Viscount Saint Just, walks off the pages of her latest Regency novel and into her New York apartment, that's just what she ends up with and she has only her own imagination to blame. Although having an out-of-time gorgeous hero around is challenging, to say the least, it does come in handy when Maggie is suspected of killing her ex-boyfriend. Lively, sassy, and occasionally off-the-wall hilarious, this paranormal romance makes for great summer reading, and Michaels's many fans will be waiting. Michaels (Be My Baby Tonight) is a popular writer in a variety of romance sub-genres (including Regency).
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Kensington; First Edition edition (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575668793
• ISBN-13: 978-1575668796
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,620,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bubbly author pens a pretty plot, August 19, 2005

By 

Kotori (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Maggie Needs An Alibi (Paperback)

Atypical writer meets her creation.

Maggie, a bestselling author of Regency detective novels, gets a nasty surprise when her fictional creations spring to life and plague her apartment. The debonair and not-quite-so-cool-in-the-modern-world hero and his bumbling but kind sidekick have multiple adventures and keep Maggie on her toes.

An amusing peek into the publishing world, never to be taken as more than tounge in cheek.

Bouncy little story and jolly surmise, I happily whiled away the hours reading.

Kotori 2005

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A blending of my favorite genres, March 25, 2005

By 

C. Reaves "Klawzie" (South-Eastern USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maggie Needs An Alibi (Paperback)

If I could, I'd arrange it so that Ms. Michaels wrote nothing but Maggie's adventures. This series combines several of my favorite genres: Regency romance, romantic-comedy, and mystery. (Granted, I rarely read straight mysteries.)

Maggie (other than her smoking habit) is who I want to grow up to be: a successful author with several good friends and a place she is happy living. I can't get enough of her, or Sterling, or Bernie, or any reoccuring character in this series!

I'm generally better with reviews - but it's like trying to review a friend. You forget which qualities to point out because you think everyone should realize how amazing they are.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, May 31, 2003

By 

"tmh72" (Broken Arrow, OK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maggie Needs An Alibi (Paperback)

Even though this is not exactly an original plotline, I was interested when I read the description on the back cover. I had a really hard time getting into this book. She spends way too much time setting up the story. Over a hundred pages into the book there was still no murder or romance. I did like the characters, and I will probably give the sequel a try before I completely give up. I just felt this book had too much background and not enough action and plot.