From Publishers Weekly
Philadelphia teacher Amanda Pepper is vacationing with Sasha Berg, a woman photographer friend willing to share the hotel room she will occupy while working in Atlantic City. On arrival, their hotel gives them a free upgrade to a luxurious, high-roller ' s suite. After Sasha heads out for a dinner date, Amanda departs with policeman C. K. Mackenzie, her significant other who is in town on a case. They're roused by a 1 a.m. call from Sasha, who has found a dead man in the suite and been arrested for murder. Suspecting that Sasha has been framed, Amanda tries to track down her friend's date and to learn if the victim, who ran his own investment firm, truly deserved his "man-of-the-year type" reputation. Besides getting help from her beau, Amanda is assisted by two spunky women--Georgette, who lives on the beach, and Lala (for lollapalooza), an older widow engaged in a husband-snaring scheme--who add ginger and depth to the tale. Aside from a finale that finds Amanda surrounded by a crowd of tourists that seem too dim even to operate slot machines, Roberts ( With Friends Like These ) combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages--about women and poverty--in an entertaining whole. Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selection; author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Not only is Philly Prep teacher Amanda Pepper able to launch her vacation with a free junket to Atlantic City, ``America's Number One Vacation Destination,'' but she and her photographer friend Sasha Berg, in town for a shoot, get a breathtaking upgrade at their casino hotel. The only fly in the ointment is financial advisor Jesse Reese, to whose usual suite they've been moved--and who seems so determined to hang on to it that he turns up bludgeoned to death in Sasha's bed. When witnesses identify Sasha as the woman on Reese's arm on his way up to the suite, and Sasha's alibi turns out to be anything but a stand-up guy (a glaring loose end, this), the police move to downgrade her accommodations. It's up to Mandy (With Friends Like These..., 1993) and her sometime lover, Philly cop C.K. Mackenzie, to smash the frame--though C.K. proves to be little help. As Mandy uncovers evidence of Reese's schemes to defraud trusting senior citizens on a grand scale, she starts to see so many of the locals as potential scam victims- -Reese's brassy widow, Poppy; his former partner, Ray Palford; a homeless woman named Georgette who jealously guards her stretch of the boardwalk--that you'd think the town had hung out a banner for a Fleeced by Reese convention. So the mystery's not much of a stretch for Mandy, despite a lineup of zany suspects who keep popping up as abruptly as jack-in- the-boxes...or casino staffers. As usual, Roberts's sprightly heroine is much more engaging than the story she has to tell. (Literary Guild/Mystery Book Club selections) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
"DELIGHTFUL...COLORFUL...Roberts plunks her mystery amid the glitter and grime of casino life."
--L.A. Daily News
After a tough year of teaching at Philly Prep, Amanda Pepper decides to go to Atlantic City with her friend, Sasha Berg. Yet a beach vacation turns deadly when a bludgeoned corpse shows up in their hotel room--and Sasha is the prime suspect.
So Amanda hits the boardwalk to track down the real killer, chasing down clues around the surf and in the casinos, and discovering along the way that appearances are more than deceiving: they can be criminal and, sometimes, downright murderous....
"Roberts combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages in an entertaining whole."
--Publishers Weekly
"The Dorothy Parker of mystery writers."
--Nancy Pickard
"Gillian Roberts is a mystery reader's dream come true."
--Lia Matera


From the Publisher
Even before I became her editor, starting with her third mystery novel, I was enamored of Gillian Roberts and the Philadelphia-set series she writes about schoolteacher Amanda Pepper. (The author herself was once a schoolteacher in Philadelphia, so she knows whereof she writes.) Gillian's debut, CAUGHT DEAD IN PHILADELPHIA, justly won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. And subsequent installments confirmed the promise of that first book. What's special about all the Amanda Pepper novels is Amanda's voice (i.e., Gillian's first-person narration): wry, commonsensical, and with commentary that alternates between compassionate and laugh-aloud funny. Maybe the best way to describe the appeal of Gillian Roberts is to quote another top-echelon crime novelist, Nancy Pickard, who says, "Here's the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers, laughing even when -- especially when -- it hurts, and giving more wit per page than most writers give per book." All I'll add is: don't miss Gillian Roberts!

--Joe Blades, Associate Publisher

From the Inside Flap
"DELIGHTFUL...COLORFUL...Roberts plunks her mystery amid the glitter and grime of casino life."
--L.A. Daily News
After a tough year of teaching at Philly Prep, Amanda Pepper decides to go to Atlantic City with her friend, Sasha Berg. Yet a beach vacation turns deadly when a bludgeoned corpse shows up in their hotel room--and Sasha is the prime suspect.
So Amanda hits the boardwalk to track down the real killer, chasing down clues around the surf and in the casinos, and discovering along the way that appearances are more than deceiving: they can be criminal and, sometimes, downright murderous....
"Roberts combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages in an entertaining whole."
--Publishers Weekly
"The Dorothy Parker of mystery writers."
--Nancy Pickard
"Gillian Roberts is a mystery reader's dream come true."
--Lia Matera

ANNOTATION

After a tough year of teaching at Philly Prep, Amanda Pepper decides to go to Atlantic City with her friend, Sasha Berg. Yet a beach vacation turns deadly when a bludgeoned corpse shows up in her hotel room--and Sasha is the prime suspect.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

She may be a mild-mannered Philadelphia schoolteacher, but when there's murder in the air, Amanda Pepper always manages to teach the police a neat new trick or two. This time America's hot vacation spot, Atlantic City, is the scene of the cold-blooded crime. After a tough year of teaching at Philly Prep, Amanda Pepper craves a relaxing beach vacation. As luck would have it, her carefree photographer friend, Sasha Berg, has a seaside shoot in Atlantic City - and a hotel room for Amanda to use as a crash pad. Yet the free lodging becomes a murder scene when Sasha finds a stranger bludgeoned to death in her bed. The man was Jesse Reese, a beloved financier who advised the elderly on investment deals - and someone Sasha had never met. But a witness claims he saw Sasha with the victim - and her only alibi has vanished into thin air. So when the police threaten to arrest Sasha, Amanda flies into action, hoping to save her friend and track down a Sasha look-alike. But whether man or woman, friend or foe, she hasn't a clue. Gathering her wits, Amanda hits the boardwalk and chases down clues around the surf and under the casinos, discovering along the way that appearances are more than deceiving: they can be criminal - and, sometimes, downright murderous...

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Philadelphia teacher Amanda Pepper is vacationing with Sasha Berg, a woman photographer friend willing to share the hotel room she will occupy while working in Atlantic City. On arrival, their hotel gives them a free upgrade to a luxurious, high-roller ' s suite. After Sasha heads out for a dinner date, Amanda departs with policeman C. K. Mackenzie, her significant other who is in town on a case. They're roused by a 1 a.m. call from Sasha, who has found a dead man in the suite and been arrested for murder. Suspecting that Sasha has been framed, Amanda tries to track down her friend's date and to learn if the victim, who ran his own investment firm, truly deserved his ``man-of-the-year type'' reputation. Besides getting help from her beau, Amanda is assisted by two spunky women--Georgette, who lives on the beach, and Lala (for lollapalooza), an older widow engaged in a husband-snaring scheme--who add ginger and depth to the tale. Aside from a finale that finds Amanda surrounded by a crowd of tourists that seem too dim even to operate slot machines, Roberts ( With Friends Like These ) combines appealing characters, a good puzzle and some serious messages--about women and poverty--in an entertaining whole. Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selection; author tour. (Sept.)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"The Dorothy Parker of mystery writers." — Nancy Pickard