Publishers Weekly
In her fourth engaging cozy (after 2001's Stabbing Stephanie), literary agent Jane Stuart delves into murder at a writers' retreat. An old friend, Ivy Benson (the mother of the murder victim in the first in the series, Missing Marlene), reappears just as Jane has agreed to help out at a writers' weekend being held at Mt. Munsee Lodge. Ivy has a new man in her life, Johnny, and she seems to want to mend her fences with Jane, but Jane has misgivings about Ivy's new heartthrob and his intentions toward her friend. Johnny's on the run from something, and his antics with one of the women at the lodge soon cause problems for everyone. When Jane discovers Ivy dead, killed by an ice pick, she figures Johnny is the likely killer-except that he's disappeared. Despite the urgings of her cop boyfriend not to get involved, Jane keeps digging into the murder and finds that there are unexpected connections to some of the students attending the retreat. What was the real motive that compelled someone to put Ivy on ice? In unearthing the final clue, Jane rather foolishly puts herself in danger. She nevertheless proves a shrewd sleuth, even without the help of her cat, Winky, who's sidelined during this adventure, giving birth to a litter of kittens (the two cats on the Christmasy jacket, however, are sure to draw ailurophiles). (Nov. 5) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Because her daughter was murdered after taking a job as nanny to literary agent Jane Stuart's son, Ivy Benson and Jane are no longer best friends. Ivy subsequently attends a writers' retreat arranged by Jane, but before they can repair their friendship, someone kills Ivy, and Jane and her cat, Winky, must solve the case. For fans of feline cozies. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Literary agent Jane Stuart (Stabbing Stephanie, 2001, etc.) isn’t all that happy to hear from Ivy Benson. After all, relations between them have been pretty cool ever since Ivy’s daughter, Marlene, got killed while working as a nanny for Jane’s young son Nick. And Ivy’s shady new boyfriend, Johnny Baglieri, doesn’t thrill Jane either. Besides, Jane has just promised Rhoda Kagan and Adam Forrest, new owners of the Mt. Munsee Lodge, that she’ll run a weeklong workshop for aspiring writers. But Ivy’s pleas to reconnect with her former best friend are so impassioned that Jane gives in, inviting her to share their Christmas Eve dinner of curried cascadura (provided by Florence, Marlene’s replacement) and even allowing her and Johnny to tag along at Mt. Munsee. Bad move. Johnny develops a thing for aspiring romance writer Carla Santino. A guy with a gun shows up and chases him off into the woods. And Ivy turns up on the frozen pond with an ice pick in her throat. Now Jane is hellbent to discover Ivy’s murderer; after all, she explains to her boyfriend, Detective Stanley Greenberg--who’d just as soon she left police work to the police--Ivy’s her best friend! Not Winky’s new kittens, not Stanley’s warnings, not even plot logic (first she wants a quiet New Year’s Eve with Nick, Stanley, and Florence--if she’s free; then she’s off to a party with no provision for babysitting) can deter Jane from her noble goal. Continuity, please. Marshall’s reasonable plot gets deep-sixed by Jane’s abrupt, unmotivated changes of heart.
