From Publishers Weekly
Philadelphia's New Year's Day Mummers' Parade, a splashy, fiercely competitive affair, turns murderous in yet another funny Philly puzzler for schoolteacher Amanda Pepper (In the Dead of Summer, etc.). Amanda watches as a costumed Pierrot collapses in the middle of the parade?shot dead. Vincent Devaney, a Mummer who teaches with Amanda at Philly Prep, is prime suspect. An old friend of the dead man, Vincent had also been his rival for the leadership of their "Fancy Club," one of the organizations in the secretive world of Mummerdom. Complicating matters is the fact that Vincent falsely claims he was with Amanda during the shooting. Amanda's significant other, homicide detective K.C. Mackenzie, trusts her sufficiently to ask her to chat with Vincent to find out "what's really going down." But after a gun surfaces in Amanda's voluminous purse, and the corpse of another Mummer turns up in an abandoned factory, even Mackenzie's dinner conversation crosses the line from chit-chat to interrogation. Roberts effectively balances the subject of pride, Philadelphia's local color and Amanda's mounting problems. Written with a fine sense of just how much is enough, the Amanda Pepper series is notable for how comfortably it occupies the space between cozy and city-grit crime fiction. Author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Series heroine and Philadelphia schoolteacher Amanda Pepper (In the Dead of Summer, Ballantine, 1995) witnesses the murder of a clown in the Mummer's Parade. When a fellow teacher (and principal suspect) falsely names Amanda as his alibi, she begins sleuthing. Fascinating plot and wit-filled prose.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Philadelphia schoolteacher and amateur sleuth Amanda Pepper's latest case starts at the annual Mummers' Parade, an eagerly awaited event noted for its outlandish costumes, pomp and pageantry, and the intense competition to win the "Best in Parade" title. But this year's parade is marred by the shocking murder of one of the Mummer marchers. Amanda, who's writing an article about the Mummers, is at the parade when the murder occurs, but when one of her fellow teachers at Philly Prep is accused of the murder and then claims Amanda as his alibi, her interest in the killing becomes more than academic. Confident the accused man is innocent, Amanda enlists the grudging help of her live-in partner, Philadelphia cop C. K. Mackenzie, to uncover the identity of the real killer. Roberts' breezy humor, lighthearted writing style, inventive plot, and likable cast of characters add up to another winning entry in this popular series. Emily Melton


From Kirkus Reviews
The arctic cold isn't the only threat to the storied Mummers who parade through Philadelphia on New Year's Day; produce driver James Patricciano collapses inside his feathered costume, two bullets in his chest, as his Fancy Club marches down Broad Street. Amanda Pepper, standing by with her six-year-old niece in preparation for an article she'd like to write on the Mummers, suddenly wishes she'd taken her roommate C.K. Mackenzie's advice and watched the parade on television--especially when Vincent Devaney, a second-tier Fancy who's also her fellow teacher at Philly Prep, talks himself out of arrest by claiming he was with Amanda. Mackenzie and his police colleagues want to talk to Amanda about Vincent; card-shop heiress Emily Semow, who insists the late Jimmy Pat had broken his engagement to upscale Dolores Grassi in order to marry her, wants to talk to Amanda; crime reporters smelling a connection to another Mummer's suspicious disappearance and hungry for the secrets she's been collecting for that unwritten article also want to talk to Amanda. But she'd rather talk about the plagiarizing student whose litigious parents are likely to cost her her job. And you can see why, since the plagiarism subplot, with its strong narrative line and real sense of danger, runs away with Roberts's spotty seventh (In the Dead of Summer, 1995, etc.). The suspects in Jimmy Pat's murder, well-drawn though they are, straggle as aimlessly as well-liquored Mummers on the way back to South Philly. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
"ANOTHER FUNNY PHILLY PUZZLER . . . Notable for how comfortably it occupies the space between cozy and city-grit crime fiction."
--Publishers Weekly

When a reveling Pierrot is shot dead at the Mummers' Parade in Philadelphia, schoolteacher Amanda Pepper is first just a horrified spectator. But then the prime suspect--her friend and fellow teacher at Philly Prep--falsely claims to have been with her at the time of the murder. Amanda can no longer stay on the sidelines, as she plunges into the Mummers' tight-knit world, where no one seems willing to help her find a dangerous killer. . . .

"Entertaining . . . A fun read."
--West Coast Review of Books

"Delightful."
--San Diego Union-Tribune


From the Publisher
Amanda Pepper, the Philadelphia English teacher is a crack-up . . . always getting caught up in a crime. Whether she is in the classroom, on vacation, or just hanging out at home, she always finds time to solve a mystery. I like Roberts's characters (Amanda herself, her boyfriend C.K., her mother, and her friend Sasha) so much that I talked a local wholesale buyer into purchasing and distributing the Amanda Pepper series to a major retail store in Southern California. The sales results were great!

--Nanci Andersen, Ballantine Sales


From the Inside Flap
"ANOTHER FUNNY PHILLY PUZZLER . . . Notable for how comfortably it occupies the space between cozy and city-grit crime fiction."
--Publishers Weekly

When a reveling Pierrot is shot dead at the Mummers' Parade in Philadelphia, schoolteacher Amanda Pepper is first just a horrified spectator. But then the prime suspect--her friend and fellow teacher at Philly Prep--falsely claims to have been with her at the time of the murder. Amanda can no longer stay on the sidelines, as she plunges into the Mummers' tight-knit world, where no one seems willing to help her find a dangerous killer. . . .

"Entertaining . . . A fun read."
--West Coast Review of Books

"Delightful."
--San Diego Union-Tribune  


About the Author
Gillian Roberts is the nom de mystère of mainstream novelist Judith Greber. Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Mystery for Caught Dead in Philadelphia, she is also the author of Philly Stakes, I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia, With Friends Like These . . . , How I Spent My Summer Vacation, and In the Dead of Summer. Formerly an English teacher in Philadelphia, she now lives in California.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The famous Mummers' Parade is an extravaganza that draws enormous crowds who cheer as more than thirty thousand clowns, string bands, and fancy brigades strut their stuff up Broad Street. But this year, while the music blares and the Mummers dance, a reveling Pierrot suddenly sinks to the ground, shot dead. Amanda is, at first, only a horrified spectator. But when the prime suspect - her friend and fellow teacher at Philly Prep - falsely claims to have been with her at the time of the murder, Amanda can no longer stay on the sidelines. Is the murder a flare-up of deadly rivalries? Is it connected with the disappearance, the week before Christmas, of another Mummer, the heir of a meatpacking family? Does someone disapprove of the Mummers' feathers, sequins, and string bands? And why is no one in the tight-knit world Amanda investigates willing to tell the truth about anything?

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Philadelphia's New Year's Day Mummers' Parade, a splashy, fiercely competitive affair, turns murderous in yet another funny Philly puzzler for schoolteacher Amanda Pepper (In the Dead of Summer, etc.). Amanda watches as a costumed Pierrot collapses in the middle of the paradeshot dead. Vincent Devaney, a Mummer who teaches with Amanda at Philly Prep, is prime suspect. An old friend of the dead man, Vincent had also been his rival for the leadership of their ``Fancy Club,'' one of the organizations in the secretive world of Mummerdom. Complicating matters is the fact that Vincent falsely claims he was with Amanda during the shooting. Amanda's significant other, homicide detective K.C. Mackenzie, trusts her sufficiently to ask her to chat with Vincent to find out ``what's really going down.'' But after a gun surfaces in Amanda's voluminous purse, and the corpse of another Mummer turns up in an abandoned factory, even Mackenzie's dinner conversation crosses the line from chit-chat to interrogation. Roberts effectively balances the subject of pride, Philadelphia's local color and Amanda's mounting problems. Written with a fine sense of just how much is enough, the Amanda Pepper series is notable for how comfortably it occupies the space between cozy and city-grit crime fiction. Author tour. (Aug.)

Library Journal

Series heroine and Philadelphia schoolteacher Amanda Pepper (In the Dead of Summer, Ballantine, 1995) witnesses the murder of a clown in the Mummer's Parade. When a fellow teacher (and principal suspect) falsely names Amanda as his alibi, she begins sleuthing. Fascinating plot and wit-filled prose.

BookList - Emily Melton

Philadelphia schoolteacher and amateur sleuth Amanda Pepper's latest case starts at the annual Mummers' Parade, an eagerly awaited event noted for its outlandish costumes, pomp and pageantry, and the intense competition to win the "Best in Parade" title. But this year's parade is marred by the shocking murder of one of the Mummer marchers. Amanda, who's writing an article about the Mummers, is at the parade when the murder occurs, but when one of her fellow teachers at Philly Prep is accused of the murder and then claims Amanda as his alibi, her interest in the killing becomes more than academic. Confident the accused man is innocent, Amanda enlists the grudging help of her live-in partner, Philadelphia cop C. K. Mackenzie, to uncover the identity of the real killer. Roberts' breezy humor, lighthearted writing style, inventive plot, and likable cast of characters add up to another winning entry in this popular series.

Kirkus Reviews

The arctic cold isn't the only threat to the storied Mummers who parade through Philadelphia on New Year's Day; produce driver James Patricciano collapses inside his feathered costume, two bullets in his chest, as his Fancy Club marches down Broad Street. Amanda Pepper, standing by with her six-year-old niece in preparation for an article she'd like to write on the Mummers, suddenly wishes she'd taken her roommate C.K. Mackenzie's advice and watched the parade on television—especially when Vincent Devaney, a second-tier Fancy who's also her fellow teacher at Philly Prep, talks himself out of arrest by claiming he was with Amanda. Mackenzie and his police colleagues want to talk to Amanda about Vincent; card-shop heiress Emily Semow, who insists the late Jimmy Pat had broken his engagement to upscale Dolores Grassi in order to marry her, wants to talk to Amanda; crime reporters smelling a connection to another Mummer's suspicious disappearance and hungry for the secrets she's been collecting for that unwritten article also want to talk to Amanda. But she'd rather talk about the plagiarizing student whose litigious parents are likely to cost her her job.

And you can see why, since the plagiarism subplot, with its strong narrative line and real sense of danger, runs away with Roberts's spotty seventh (In the Dead of Summer, 1995, etc.). The suspects in Jimmy Pat's murder, well-drawn though they are, straggle as aimlessly as well-liquored Mummers on the way back to South Philly.