Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Maggie Needs an Alibi
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Kasey Michaels
Class/Genre: Mystery Woman Main Character
Series: Maggie Kelly # 1
Kensington, Jul 2002, $20.00, 310 pp.
Six years ago, Toland Publishing fired midlist romance writers including Maggie Kelly better known as historical author Alica Tate Evans. Rather than cry in her tea, Maggie switches genres trying her word processing on the Regency mystery sub-genre. Creating amateur sleuth hero Viscount Saint Just and his sidekick Balder, Maggie uses the "O" filled pen name of Cleo Dooley. She quickly becomes a New York Times best selling author.
Maggie begins to wonder what is in her tea when Saint Just and Balder appear in her Manhattan apartment. As they drive her crazy, Maggie feels responsibility for the duo even though they adjust to modern life like ducks to water. When Maggie’s publisher Kirk Toland dies after dining at her home, the police suspect the author killed him, as they were former lovers. Naturally Saint Just reverts to character and investigates the homicide in his nineteenth century aristocratic manner that skewers urbane urbanites.
Renowned writer Kasey Michaels takes the trendy dive from romance to mystery with MAGGIE NEEDS AN ALIBI, but does not just add a lot of suspense to a tale of love as commonly done with the switch. Unlike Maggie, Ms. Michaels needs no alibis as she satirizes the publishing industry where small success mean downsizing. The amusing story line contains an entertaining who-done-it starring a wonderful heroine and her now living Regency characters learning the uses of plastic faster than solving the case. This cast humorously skewers anyone in its path while making this novel into a deserving sure shot bestseller.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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