Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Die For Love

Die for Love

Elizabeth Peters

Date: 1984   —   $6.99   —   Book

product page

Rating:

Fiction, Mystery

This is another example of an appalling 80s-era cover. [edit: My copy, not the current one.] Like I said, James Bond - which has absolutely nothing to do with the story in question, especially as the people portrayed look like extras from Dallas or somesuch. (With one young girl looking much like Ione Sky, actually.)

The book has absolutely nothing to do with that. It is, in fact, set at a romance writers' convention, a confectionary of pink and red and lavender, and something Jacqueline Kirby has decided to attend for fun. And fun she has, because she is not in the least bit afraid of "making a fool of herself" - which in this case involves dressing in absurd creations of ruffles, lace, and enormous picture hats, and acting like a complete ditz, which she is obviously not. Beware the librarian.

Naturally, such a mundane event as a convention would not be a subject for a mystery, were it not for the fact of the writer who hides from Kirby, the snoopy reporter with a heart condition who dies just before publishing a big scandal, the young male "writer" who is obviously just an actor, or the beautiful young "Valentine" who suggests that someone is going to kill her.

It's going to take a lot of audacity to unravel the schemes going on at this convention. Luckily, that is a quality that Kirby has in spades. It's her bizarre and fearless character that makes this such an entertaining read, particularly once she decides that she might as well start writing a romance of her own...

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