Mummers' Curse [Hardcover]

Gillian Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 1996

"Here's the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers . . . giving more wit per page than most writers give per book."
--Nancy Pickard
In her new novel starring Philadelphia schoolteacher Amanda Pepper, Gillian Roberts once again mixes mystery and mirth. This time Roberts explores Philadelphia's unique flesh and blood "historical monument"-- the Mummers, who live (and perhaps are willing to die) for a few hours of glory every New Year's Day.
The famous Mummers' Parade is an extravaganza that draws enormous crowds who cheer through chattering teeth, as more than thirty thousand clowns, string bands, and fancy brigades strut their stuff up Broad Street. But this year, while the music blares and the Mummers dance, a reveling Pierrot suddenly sinks to the ground, shot dead.
Amanda is, at first, only a horrified spectator. But when the prime suspect--her friend and fellow teacher at Philly Prep--falsely claims to have been with her at the time of the murder, Amanda can no longer stay on the sidelines.
Is the murder a flare-up of deadly rivalries? Is it connected with the disappearance, the week before Christmas, of another Mummer, the heir to a meat-packing family? Does someone disapprove of the Mummers' feathers, sequins, and string bands? And why is no one in the tight-knit world Amanda investigates willing to tell the truth about anything?
With Amanda on the scene, the who in whodunit doesn't stay secret for long. In The Mummers' Curse, Gillian Roberts is, as always, at the head of the parade.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Philadelphia's New Year's Day Mummers' Parade, a splashy, fiercely competitive affair, turns murderous in yet another funny Philly puzzler for schoolteacher Amanda Pepper (In the Dead of Summer, etc.). Amanda watches as a costumed Pierrot collapses in the middle of the parade?shot dead. Vincent Devaney, a Mummer who teaches with Amanda at Philly Prep, is prime suspect. An old friend of the dead man, Vincent had also been his rival for the leadership of their "Fancy Club," one of the organizations in the secretive world of Mummerdom. Complicating matters is the fact that Vincent falsely claims he was with Amanda during the shooting. Amanda's significant other, homicide detective K.C. Mackenzie, trusts her sufficiently to ask her to chat with Vincent to find out "what's really going down." But after a gun surfaces in Amanda's voluminous purse, and the corpse of another Mummer turns up in an abandoned factory, even Mackenzie's dinner conversation crosses the line from chit-chat to interrogation. Roberts effectively balances the subject of pride, Philadelphia's local color and Amanda's mounting problems. Written with a fine sense of just how much is enough, the Amanda Pepper series is notable for how comfortably it occupies the space between cozy and city-grit crime fiction. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Series heroine and Philadelphia schoolteacher Amanda Pepper (In the Dead of Summer, Ballantine, 1995) witnesses the murder of a clown in the Mummer's Parade. When a fellow teacher (and principal suspect) falsely names Amanda as his alibi, she begins sleuthing. Fascinating plot and wit-filled prose.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 231 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (August 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345403231
• ISBN-13: 978-0345403230
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,995,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Happy New Years!, September 30, 2000

By 

Linda G. Harvey (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mummers' Curse (Amanda Pepper Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

With her usual wit, Gillian Roberts has crafted another winner. The details of the "sub-culture," for lack of a better phrase, of the Italian-Americans in South Philly and of the highly overlapping "sub-culture," again for the lack of a better phrase, of the Mummers are wonderful, if not totally accurate. However, I view this from a Philadelphian's perspective and am not sure that a non-Philadelphian will not be a bit lost in these "cultures." For this reason I gave it only 4 stars although it is my personal favorite of the Amanda Pepper series so far.

As expected, the book contains the usual - banter between Amanda and CK about his "real" name, their sometimes conflicts, the expected calls from her Mom, Bea. We also hear from her sister, her brother-in-law, her niece, and her execrable principal and his equally up-tight office assistant. Not to mention a totally obnoxious chiropractor turned radio psychologist.

Beyond the wit and the repetoire of literary knowledge displayed in this series, I especially appreciate the characterizations. These are people I know; they live in neighborhoods I know; they shop where I do; go to the same dry cleaners. They eat cheese steaks. They watch the Mummers Parade every New Years Day!!

I do not recommend this as a book to start reading the series. Start at the beginning and get to this once in sequence.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book & can hardly wait to read more by Roberts, December 8, 2004

By 

M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mummers' Curse (Amanda Pepper Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I don't know what the reviewer who gave the book one star was thinking about and why that person didn't like Amanda Pepper, English teacher and sleuth. I thought the book was very literate, laugh out loud witty (some wonderful lines for those who appreciate dry humor, like the comment about "garden fresh salad" -- is the alternative compost?) The background of the Mummer's Parade in Phildadelphia was fascinating and made me want to go see it for myself (I'd never heard of it).

The plot involves Amanda viewing the death of one of the parade participants (she's there watching the parade with her homicide detective boyfriend and her niece). One of the suspects gives Amanda as an alibi -- which obviously isn't going to work given that she wasn't alone during the parade. Amanda gets involved trying to figure out why her teaching colleague would lie about his whereabouts, and before you know it, her research into the mummer's tradition (she had been researching a freelance article before this all happened) gets her involved in the whole mess. It appears that the mummer's group that the deceased belonged to includes some suspects. So the reader is off on a tour of the close-knit South Philly community and its parade clubs. I guess if you don't find that kind of stuff interesting, perhaps you won't like the book. The kind of community described reminded me of Janet Evanovich's New Jersey, but the humor is more of the dry, witty variety and less over the top.

If you like well-written literate mysteries with some humor and a bit of romance, I think you'll like this book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Modest Mystery, December 31, 2011

By 

Nancy A. Fox (West Covina, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mummers' Curse (Hardcover)

The Mummer's Curse is a fairly enjoyable, light mystery. If you prefer your mysteries on the less graphic spectrum of mysteries you would probably enjoy this. The protagonist, Amanda Pepper, is an English teacher at a private school in Philadelphia. Her live-in boyfriend is a police detective, who is originally from Louisiana and is an excellent cook. They share a spacious loft apartment above an art gallery with a pet cat in downtown Philadelphia, and except for her mother constantly worrying about her from Florida and Amanda's suburban sister worrying about the dangers of living in the evil city, they seem to have a pretty good life together.

Into this framework Amanda decides to write a free-lance article to prove that she can't just teach writing. Her article is going to be on the Mummers tradition of a New Year's parade, and the whole culture of the mummers. So on New Year's Day she finds herself front and center to a murder, as she is watching the Mummers parade when someone is killed. She is worried that the murder victim could be her friend and coworker who introduced her to the mummer society, but instead finds out it was another person and her friend is actually a suspect. Further complicating things is the fact that the friend gives Amanda as his alibi, even though she didn't see him that day.

Of course Amanda's boyfriend CK is on the case. Amanda is now the alleged alibi of a suspect, and a witness to the murder, so she decides to go find out why her friend used her as an alibi, where he actually was, and why someone would kill one of the mummers. Amanda finds herself being dragged into the goings-on within the specific mummer group that her colleague and the murder victim belong to, which is a tight-knit community that doesn't welcome or trust strangers. Things get complicated as a potential murder weapon is found in Amanda's possessions, she is threatened by different members of the mummer society, and is sent a strange package (which her cat actually eats).

I understand that this is part of a series, but I don't think I'll be looking for other books in the series. I see that one of the other reviewers stated that this would not be the book to start the series with, and I guess I'm proof of that. There is a lot to do with the various factions in Philadelphia-city versus suburbs, various ethnic groups, the mummers, etc., etc. Perhaps since I'm not familiar with Philadelphia these things weren't that interesting to me. I also found some of the characters to be too stereotypical. I did enjoy learning about the mummers parade, since I've never heard of it.

So, the book was decently written. The mystery was fairly interesting. The characters are sort of interesting. It was definitely not a gross and gory mystery, and the ending made sense within the framework. If you'd like a light mystery to read, give it a try, but don't expect too much.