From Publishers Weekly
Edgar and Anthony award finalist Haddam combines two horror movie cliches the Friends Who Share a Terrible Secret and the Nasty Clique in High School with crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot in her latest puzzle (after 2001's True Believers) to feature her Armenian-American sleuth. Liz Tolliver author, CNN panelist, fianc‚e of a rock star returns home to Hollman, Pa., the Velveeta beginnings of her now Brie life. Known as "Betsy Wetsy" back in high school, Liz was the butt of a group of teenaged girls who make Carrie's classmates look like Rosie O'Donnell; they locked her in an outhouse with 22 snakes the same evening another high school senior had his throat slit. The toxic passions surrounding both incidents revive after three decades. Haddam's cutting between the viewpoints of Liz's six female tormentors is at times confusing, and their hatred of Liz can seem over-the-top: after 30 years, they all but spit when they see her. Demarkian takes a long time to enter the plot, but once in Hollman, his skills and celebrity shine light on the town's dark secrets. "Every school class had a target. It was just the way the world worked," one of the cool crowd believes. Demarkian muses: "The `popular' people are `popular' by virtue of being envied and hated by ninety-nine percent of the people they go to school with. Does anybody but me think that's very strange?" Haddam movingly explores what that means for our lives past, present and future and how that happens and why.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A famous woman writer with a rock-star lover returns to the hometown where as a nerdy teenager she was traumatized by a nearby, still unsolved murder. The rock star asks FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit chief Gregor Demarkian (True Believers) to solve this case and more. Solid. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"Dazzlingly ingenious, Jane Haddam's novels provide style, humor, and philosophy blended with gore galore-they're real spellbinders, sparklingly written and smashingly plotted."
--Drood Review

"Crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot."
-Publishers Weekly



Book Description
Jane Haddam's stylishly written novels featuring Gregor Demarkian, retired chief of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, have thrilled and delighted an ever-increasing number of readers over the years. Now, with Somebody Else's Music, Haddam delivers her most compelling crime novel to date - a brilliant exploration of how the past affects the present and the twisted workings of human psyche.Elizabeth Toliver, now an acclaimed author with a rock star lover, was a too-smart, fashion-impaired teen who was the target of abuse from a circle of popular high school girls. The abuse escalated until one summer night she was nailed into an outhouse with over twenty snakes and, while she beat herself into a coma trying to escape, a local teenage boy was murdered just outside. Still haunted by nightmares of that night, Toliver returns to her hometown for the first time in almost 30 years, triggering a deadly chain of events.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Elizabeth Toliver, now an acclaimed author with a rock star lover, was a too-smart fashion-impaired teen who was the target of abuse from a circle of popular high school girls. The abuse escalated until one summer night when she was nailed inside an outhouse with over twenty snakes within, and while she beat herself into a coma trying to escape, a local teenage boy was murdered just outside. Still haunted by nightmares of that night, Toliver returns to her hometown for the first time in almost thirty years, triggering a deadly chain of events.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Edgar and Anthony award finalist Haddam combines two horror movie clich s the Friends Who Share a Terrible Secret and the Nasty Clique in High School with crisp character development and a roadrunner-swift plot in her latest puzzle (after 2001's True Believers) to feature her Armenian-American sleuth. Liz Tolliver author, CNN panelist, fianc e of a rock star returns home to Hollman, Pa., the Velveeta beginnings of her now Brie life. Known as "Betsy Wetsy" back in high school, Liz was the butt of a group of teenaged girls who make Carrie's classmates look like Rosie O'Donnell; they locked her in an outhouse with 22 snakes the same evening another high school senior had his throat slit. The toxic passions surrounding both incidents revive after three decades. Haddam's cutting between the viewpoints of Liz's six female tormentors is at times confusing, and their hatred of Liz can seem over-the-top: after 30 years, they all but spit when they see her. Demarkian takes a long time to enter the plot, but once in Hollman, his skills and celebrity shine light on the town's dark secrets. "Every school class had a target. It was just the way the world worked," one of the cool crowd believes. Demarkian muses: "The `popular' people are `popular' by virtue of being envied and hated by ninety-nine percent of the people they go to school with. Does anybody but me think that's very strange?" Haddam movingly explores what that means for our lives past, present and future and how that happens and why. Regional author tour. Agent, Don Maass. (June 17) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A famous woman writer with a rock-star lover returns to the hometown where as a nerdy teenager she was traumatized by a nearby, still unsolved murder. The rock star asks FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit chief Gregor Demarkian (True Believers) to solve this case and more. Solid. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews