Caught Dead in Philadelphia

In Gillian Roberts's Caught Dead in Philadelphia, the first installment in the Amanda Pepper mystery series, this debut will keep you in suspense and laughing at juicy tidbits of humor. For Amanda Pepper, she was a high school English teacher in Philadelphia, when she discovered her friend's Liza Nichols's dead body in her home. From there, she kept wondering who would've done such a thing to Liza, who had everything going right in her life.  Then she met a sweet-talking Southern police officer named Detective C.K. Mackenzie, who was assigned to the case. At first, they didn't get off well in the first hitch, when he accused Amanda of being a prime suspect. But Amanda did some sleuthing of her own and dug closer into her social life on stage as a local theater actress and also in her personal life. Who would do such a thing to her? But when someone wanted to talk to her about her murder, things turned awry when he wound up dead in his home. Now, Amanda's a bit shaken and needs Mackenzie's protection, because she believes she's next. While she continued to guess what the C. stands for in his initials, they get to know each other better as they put the pieces together and laid it out in front of them. But when she thought she had figured out with a death threat and then a scare at the local fair, she came across the one person who she didn't suspect and learned why her friend died by a senseless death in the end.

This was an interesting and amusing debut from Gillian Roberts. I did care for Amanda and how she would dealt with her friend's death. I loved the snarky bits with her phone conversations about Herman the bald parrot--it made me laugh out loud and sometimes snort. I did become amused on C.K.'s Southern charm and wondered what his initials stood for too. We might have to keep reading the other 10-plus books in the series to find out in the end. I loved the Philly locations and the gripping scenic scenes in the storyline that made it feel so picturesque. This would keep you rooted to the edge of your seat with non-stop actions, tons of humorous drama, good sparks of intrigue and lots of suspense to keep us hooked on every single page.



Will you give Caught Dead in Philadelphia a try today?