*sigh*

This was a fun beach read, right up until the last chapter. The sudden miraculous reformation of the main character, plus a dated throwaway line intended to indicated disaster-to-come-anna-sequel were just ridiculous. ( )

I read this book in one day. I'd read the first one, WELL BRED AND DEAD, so I knew what to expect as far as the superb storytelling--both in the writing and the plotting, and the (I'll call her) outrageous main character go. And I wasn't disappointed. The main character, Pauline Cook, is hilarious because half the time she doesn't see where she's a snob and the other half of the time she does see it and can't imagine that anyone in her right mind could be otherwise under those circumstances. I laughed out loud so many times that my cats ran out of the room (I never said I had a dainty laugh!), especially during the short bedroom scene where Pauline finally thinks she's got the unattached, aging billionnaire right where she wants him.

Pauline seems to always be on the brink of bankruptcy but there's almost no area in her life where she can bear to cut back -- not on the $2,000 dresses, the first class travel, the champagne, the designer everything. As she's buying $300 bottles of wine or paying thousands extra for upgrading her airline ticket, she laments her fate (is she never to have financial security?) And yet when it comes to what she owes others, she is the cheapest woman I've ever read...paying the doorman $10 for taking care of her cat for several days (that might have been in the first book) and arguing over the difference between a $4 and a $5 tip.

I was afraid Pauline would be too shallow to have my sympathy, but Catherine O'Connell pulls it off brilliantly. She makes Pauline not only likable, but admirable as well. ( )

This story is an unusual, but somewhat successful, combination of chick lit, murder mystery, and Snobs. Pauline is much older than the usual chick lit heroine but she's trying to maintain her fashionable lifestyle even though she can no longer afford it. She's also looking for love in the wrong places. Then her best friend ends up dead and she discovers he was hiding a huge secret which she travels to various locations to uncover, commenting hilariously on the social ineptitude of the people she meets along the way. Pauline's not always likable but the author acknowledges that fact (can't tell you how or I'd spoil it!).

Publishers Weekly called this a stand-alone but with the subtitle "a high society mystery", I can only hope Catherine O'Connell makes this a series, with or without Pauline, and with a less-confused plot next time. ( )