Twist and Shout Murder:: A Murder A-Go-Go Mystery [Paperback]

Rosemary Martin (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Murder A-Go-Go Mystery | Publication Date: April 4, 2006

Bebe's new job at a modeling agency quickly sours when Bradley, her adored boss, takes a personal interest in the company's top model. Then the scheming beauty is strangled with a Pucci scarf-a gift from Bradley! Bebe's determined to find the real killer, before the man of her dreams winds up behind bars. And if that weren't enough to stop a swinging chick in her tracks, she also has to contend with a visit from her parents, a photo shoot in the Virgin Islands, and dates with the Burma Shave man...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's another sweet, slight swinging '60s retro-cozy from Martin, whose charming Murder-A-Go-Go mystery series stars endlessly perky and naïve Bebe Bennett, executive secretary to dreamy Bradley Williams, head of New York's Ryan Modeling Agency. When supermodel Suzie Wexford is strangled with a Pucci scarf while on a date with Bradley, he naturally becomes the prime suspect. Bebe, who daydreams of someday becoming Mrs. Bradley, struggles to prove his innocence with the help of her ultra-glam, globe-trotting stewardess roommate, Darlene. Bebe and Darlene quickly learn that Susie's list of enemies runs longer than patent leather thigh-high boots. In classic whodunit fashion, everyone looks a little guilty, especially rival model Lola, whom Suzie betrayed more than once. But iron-clad alibis eliminate all the suspects, leaving our gumshoe-a-go-go bothered and bewildered, watching the love of her life arrested for Suzie's murder. A surprise ending will delight fans of Martin's previous It's a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod Murder, and all super-cute cozy aficionados are sure to find this offering intoxicating as an extra-dry martini. (Apr.)
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Review

Romance, charm, originality and plenty of Dippity-do. (Harley Jane Kozak) That Girl! meets Miss Marple...you'll have a ball. (Jerrilyn Farmer)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Signet (April 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451218191
• ISBN-13: 978-0451218193
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,720,218 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:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful historical amateur sleuth mystery, April 4, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Twist and Shout Murder:: A Murder A-Go-Go Mystery (Paperback)

After leaving her hometown of Richmond, Virginia for the excitement of New York City secretary Bebe Bennett follows her boss, the handsome and sexy Bradley Williams when he becomes head of the Ryan Modeling Agency. She loves him even though he calls her "kid" because he is a decade older than her twenty-two. She does a lot to light his fire including have her stewardess roommate buy her mod clothes, mini-skirts and go-go boots (after all the year is 1964.)

However, Bebe gets no satisfaction because Bradley is emotionally involved with the company's lead model, Suzie Wexford, a woman who knows she is beautiful and sexy, and uses her attributes to climb to the top of her profession. One night Bradley leaves Suzie's apartment to buy chocolate syrup, but when he comes back, he finds she is murdered, strangled with a scarf he gave her. The police,called by Suzie's neighbor, arrest him. Bebe intends to prove his innocence as she is sure that the killer is one of the many people who confided in her that they hated Suzie.

Using the vernacular of the youth of the swinging sixties, the music that was popular then, and the other aspects of the subculture of the teenage baby boomers, Rosemary Martin makes the era go-go in cool mod Technicolor. The heroine is an adorable character, a combination of steel and sock it to me vulnerability; readers hope that her boss sees her inner beauty and falls for her. There are plenty of suspects with viable motives and guessing who the killer is becomes part of the fun of this wonderful historical (my God my teen years are historical!) amateur sleuth mystery.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soooooo groovy and mod man!, June 3, 2006

By 

4fabfelines "Lesa" (Shelbyville , TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Twist and Shout Murder:: A Murder A-Go-Go Mystery (Paperback)

Little tid bits of history and flashback lace this very cute mystery to the end. This newest book is better than the first even and will not disappoint the reader who buys it. I loved BeBe and her zany Roomie Darlene's antics. Of course BeBe only has eyes for her boss and he is trying his darndest not to fall head over heels for her. This ending took me totally by surprise. A cool whodonit to the end.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guilty pleasure A-Go-Go, July 6, 2006

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twist and Shout Murder:: A Murder A-Go-Go Mystery (Paperback)

This is a nicely crafted piece of fluff that almost manages to hide its underlying cleverness. Rosemary Martin has fashioned her charmer of a heroine, Bebe Bennet, to fit neatly between Goldie Hawn in "The Cactus Flower" and Maggie McNamara in "The Moon is Blue." For those so young that those references suggest little or nothing--most of Martin's potential readership, I suppose--I mean that while Bebe is outwardly young, sweet, naive and charming, inwardly she is constructed of titanium and stainless steel, even though she herself is not yet aware that is the case.

I find myself to be an almost exact contemporary of Bebe's. Her world in this series of books is a pretty accurate depiction of the world of the 60s--not so much as it actually was but as many of us thought it was. I began seriously to work for a living at about that time. I shared office space with a number of near-Bebes and at least one absolute dead-ringer for her. Bebe's concerns with glamor, fashion and music are accurately depicted for at least that small segment of the population with which Bebe would have identified herself--as is the singular inability to see, even to the point of willful blindness, the grimly onrushing crises of Vietnam and civil rights.

Ms. Martin's prose is solid, if not especially memorable. Her sit-com characters are no more than lay figures, but they are used with writerly skill. Plot and pace are sufficient to keep the pages turning on a regular beat.

I think Ms. Martin's goal is simply to entertain. I think she achieves that goal--and perhaps rather more.

A ditsy, slightly guilty pleasure well worthy of five stars.