What's A Girl Gotta Do? (Robin Hudson, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Sparkle Hayter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1995

Robin Hudson's life is getting complicated. Her estranged husband's girlfriend is not only younger, prettier, and more successful - she's pregnant. Robin's job - on the trash crew for the prestigious All News Network - is rocky, too. She can't seem to keep from making on-the-air faux pas. Now her loathsome boss wants her to investigate a sperm bank. Her elderly next door neighbor vilifies her and assaults her, under the delusion that she is a call girl. A blackmailer tries to shake her down. And her disdainful cat, Louise Bryant, refuses to eat unless Robin stir fries her food. Just a normal day for a single, urban professional female. Then this spunky and appealing but "slightly rumpled, third string reporter in Rita Hayworth's body" finds herself accused of murder. She thinks her apartment may have been burglarized because it seems tidier than when she left it. Robin wants to trust charming supervising producer Eric Slansky but is afraid that the super-handsome, super-amorous Super Prod may be the murderer. This is a fast-paced, funny mystery featuring a sleuth who is a television newswoman.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hayter, a journalist and stand-up comic, mines what she knows in this well-plotted mystery featuring an off-the-wall amateur sleuth. Robin Hudson, a "third-string correspondent" for TV's All News Network, saves news clippings on murder victims and grows poison ivy in the New York apartment she had shared with her husband, Burke Avery, until Amy Penny, an ANN magazine show co-host, swiped him. Robin observes Burke and Amy billing and cooing at the network's New Year's Eve party at a Manhattan hotel just before a stranger slips her a page from a PI report on herself and suggests she go to room 13D. No one answers at 13D and Robin suspects a prank until news breaks that a PI was bludgeoned to death in that room and that Robin was the last one seen in the area. She begins investigating on her own, while folks around ANN turn edgy: some shared an acquaintance with the PI that was more intimate than congenial. Someone breaks into Robin's apartment, leaving her to relish the one bright spot in her life--the sudden interest of good-looking producer Eric Slansky. Flat-out funny, audacious and a little weird, this debut stakes out territory all its own. For readers who respond to this brand of humor, Hayter's next book can't be published soon enough. 12,000 first printing.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA?Robin Hudson, "a slightly rumpled, third string reporter...in Rita Hayworth's body," has decided not to go to the All News Network's annual costume party at the Marfeles Palace Hotel. After all, her estranged husband and his successful, young, and pregnant girlfriend are going to be there. A call from a private investigator changes her mind, however, because the detective is investigating her! They plan to meet on the night of the party at the hotel. Robin's last minute costume is simple?a "support your local feminist" button and a tire iron?as she chooses to go as Ginny Foat, a prominent feminist who had been tried for murder. Unfortunately, Robin never meets the PI, but the next day finds herself facing homicide charges. Journalist and stand-up comic Hayter has come up with a wacky, slightly offbeat character sure to appeal to YAs. The clever combination of two favorite genres?humor and mystery?make this book a surefire hit.?Carol Clark, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140244816
• ISBN-13: 978-0140244816
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,832,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, funny and wry. A mystery, too., July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What's A Girl Gotta Do? (Robin Hudson, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Hayter is a great writer. Robin, her fictional heroine, sizes up people and situations with lightning speed and acerbic wit. I would pay her to hang out at my office and write about what she sees.

The book is a mystery, but I didn't notice. I was more interested in listening to Robin get herself in trouble with her superiors, insult her detractors and describe the overall state of her disheveled life.

I imagine Hayter can do well in most genres, both fiction and non-fiction.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uproariously funny, August 21, 2000

By 

"jduhe12345" - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's a Girl Gotta Do? (Robin Hudson Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Robin Hudson is a news reporter with a career on the fall. It seems that whenever she gets a break, she proceeds to embaress herself and the prestigious broadcasting company she works for. Like the time she was given the job of temporary White House correspondant and beched while standing under a super sensitive microphone at a press conference. After this disgrace, she was placed on the networks cash-cow, the Special Reports division, only to find out her husband was cheating on her with a 23 year old.

Robin's frank outlook on her situation, and rather bad attitude lend humor to some rather unhumorous situations. She attends the Network's New Years Eve party because she recieved a mysterious phone call from a P.I. who has been hired to investigate her and other on-air "talent" that work for her company. After the party, the P.I. turns up dead, and the police have some incriminating evidence, against her.

Plagued by other maladies like a machoistic boss, a report on a Sperm Bank that has been mixing up donor's "fluids", and a transvestite boyfriend, Robin tries to get to the bottom of the murder, and find out why she, of all people was being investigated.

This was a hilarious book. The mix of mystery and humor leaves little to be desired. Ms. Hayter writes very smoothly, and with good humor.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book truly "Sparkles", August 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: What's A Girl Gotta Do? (Robin Hudson, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Do not judge this book by its cover! Sparkle's character, Robin Hudson, is a laugh a minute. If you love mysteries and laughter and you haven't read this book I advise you to put this one in your shopping basket without further delay. You won't regret it