"funny upbeat mystery"

After a decade of working in hair salons and solving homicides, Bubbles has a new career as a reporter at the News-Times. She is covering the trial of Crazy Popeye, a homeless person whose real name is Julia Simon. She is accused of killing revered Lehigh Principal Rudolph Schmidt in his podiatrist's office. Because of a run in with security Bubbles shares a cell with Julia, who tells the reporter that the podiatrist always let her use her bathroom and even let her sleep in the waiting room.

She insists she didn't kill Schmidt; she heard a man and a woman running; and was trying to save the Principal when the police busted her. In the middle of the conversation Julia drops to the floor and dies. The police demand Bubbles' notes but she refuses to turn them over. She not only has the police on her case, but also a Polish Mafioso who want them as well. While she pretends to be engaged to reporter Steve Stiletto and deals with her eccentric family, Bubbles finds herself in the middle of hostage situation hosted by a diabolical killer who plans the deaths of three innocent people unless Bubbles can figure out a way out of her predicament.

Readers who like a funny upbeat mystery on the orders of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plan novels will definitely love BUBBLES BETROTHED. The heroine may not have a first class education or an upscale wardrobe, but she has plenty of heart and that is why readers care about her. The scenes between Bubbles and her "fiancé" are hilarious and the mystery is well constructed with plenty of surprising twists and turns. Sarah Strohmeyer scores again with another amusing who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 20, 2005

Summary

On her first day as a full-time reporter, Bubbles lands in jail with a murder suspect named Crazy Popeye, who grants Bubbles an exclusive interview shortly before keeling over herself. Suddenly, Bubbles's interview notes are a hot commodity among a romance- obsessed police detective, a Polish Mafioso, and a podiatrist on the lam. Meanwhile, her longtime boyfriend, Steve Stiletto, asks if she'll pose as his fiancée in order to stave off an overseas job transfer. When he plunks a Harry Winston rock on Bubbles's finger, only the specter of an all-you-can-eat pierogi wedding buffet down at the Polish-American Club, the inevitable result if her mother LuLu finds out, stops Bubbles from blurting out "Yes!"

Once again our not-so-scatterbrained bleached-blonde flits between crime scenes with unflappable verve. Like us, Bubbles frequently messes up, but she always pulls herself onto her tottering high heels and heads back into the fray.