Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Night of the Living Deb - 4th in the Debutante Dropout series
Author: Susan McBride
Publisher: Avon
ISBN: 0-0608-4555-4
Release Date: January 2007
Genre/Sub-genre: Mystery/Chicklit
Year/Setting: Present Day - TX
Overall rating: 4.5
Sexual Content Rating: None (alluded to/innuendo)
Language (Profanity) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: Mild/Moderate
Susan's Website:
www.susanmcbride.com
Poor Andy Kendrick. She’s been on the solving end of disappearances, murder, and mayhem. This time she, or should I say her boyfriend, is in the thick of things...
Brian Malone, attorney for an elite law firm, was last seen at a strip club for a small bachelor party. Andy doesn’t worry at first. She’s more annoyed than anything. Eating brunch at the "Mansion" with her mother and her new beau isn’t one of Andy’s favorite things to do alone.
Annoyance turns to worry, then panic, as Allie, attorney for the same firm, can’t seem to locate Malone, either. It’s crucial she find him. They’re working on a high profile case together and she needs his files, to say the least.
No one will listen to Andy when she claims Malone wouldn’t just disappear. He had a birthday surprise planned for her. He wouldn’t take off without telling her. He’s not the disappearing kind.
But all that becomes secondary when Malone’s car is found...with a dead body in the trunk, and it appears the person may have been killed with one of Malone’s golf clubs.
Obviously there’s more going on here than Malone taking off for some alone time and it’s up to Andy (since the police are looking for Malone as a suspect and not as a missing person) to sift through the clues and figure out what’s going on and why. Trouble is, she may be too close to the situation to read the clues right or solve anything.
With each book, Andy’s relationships are ever evolving, and this installment is no exception. With self-examination, Andy sees her mother in another, yet different light, she sees what she had with Malone yet didn’t realize it until almost too late. True, she acts irrationally, in ways that’s a bit annoying to the observer, but in ways we might if we were in her place and not thinking clearly.
Her (non) relationship with Allie was the most fun in this book, though. Like-hate, help-hindrance, sarcastic-amiable, it was all fun to watch. I hope we’ll see more of Allie in future Debutante Dropout books.
Susan McBride puts a fresh spin on an already fun and captivating Debutante Dropout series. Add to the sharp wit and misread clues a more vulnerable and sensitive Andy. Mix in IHOP with silk and pearls, the "Mansion" and diamonds with khaki, and you get a sense of the chaos and fun Susan cooks up for the reader.
This may not be the hardest mystery to help a character solve, but there are lots of opportunities to puzzle out the red herrings, sigh at Andy when she goes off track, smile at the quips, and enjoy Night of the Living Deb.
Connie
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