It All Began in Monte Carlo

May 3, 2010
At the start of Adler’s bubbly thriller, the follow-up to There’s Something About St. Tropez, Sunny Alvarez boards a Christmas Eve flight from L.A. to Paris, along with her pet Chihuahua, angry that her fiancé, PI Mac Reilly of TV’s Mac Reilly’s Malibu Mysteries, has once again postponed their wedding. On the plane, Sunny meets Eddie Johanssen (aka “Prince Charming”), who suggests another destination: Monte Carlo’s Grand Hotel. After arriving alone in Monte Carlo, Sunny improbably befriends an aging Lithuanian prostitute, Kitty Ratte, who hangs out in the Grand Hotel bar—and turns out to be a psychopath. Sunny is thrilled when both Eddie and Mac show up, but the jealous Kitty soon creates trouble. Mac ends up investigating a series of jewelry store heists, while clueless Sunny, in another unlikely twist, takes a jewelry courier job for an enigmatic Indian woman. The gorgeous locale and Sunny and Mac’s romantic give-and-take more than compensate for the less than credible plot.

May 15, 2010
Another frothy adventure in the South of France, Adler's follow-up to There's Something About St. Tropez (2009).

In this third of a series begun with Those Malibu Nights (2008), reality-TV detective Mac Reilly and his perennial fiance, sleek Latina stunner Sunny Alvarez, return. In a huge hissy after Mac postpones their nuptials yet again, Sunny boards a Christmas Eve flight from Los Angeles to Paris with her cranky Chihuahua. In first class, she encounters Eddie, a handsome CEO who sympathizes with her distress, and recommends, instead of frigid Paris, Monte Carlo—he even books her hotel room from his laptop. (He'll later follow her there.) In Monte Carlo, Sunny is spotted by superannuated (and aptly-named) Baltic Eurotrash predator Kitty Ratte. Kitty, constantly looking to exploit the vulnerabilities of the young, rich and beautiful to salve her own bitterness at being none of the above, almost befriends Sunny before being shortstopped by Sunny's movie-star BFF, Allie. While the women await Mac's contrite appearance, a crime spree is in progress: In Paris and Monte Carlo, ritzy jewelry emporiums specializing in rare diamonds have been ripped off in spectacular heists. Each time, one robber targeted the youngest and prettiest store employee. The assailant pistol-whipped her Parisian victim, shattering her cheekbone. In Monte Carlo, a young mother died after being shot in the face. Upon arriving in France, Mac is drawn into the robbery-murder investigation. Kitty finds her mark in Eddie and somehow ensnares him in a laughably inept blackmail scheme. Maha, gorgeous Indian slum-dweller turned world-renowned jewelry designer, recruits Sunny (she's back with Mac, but still determined to reassert her independence) to courier gems back to Mumbai. The whodunit is so transparent that Adler's real agenda shines through—demonstrating that the young, rich and beautiful are more deserving than the old, ugly and disadvantaged.

Although her acerbic prose is a welcome diversion, Adler's tell-don't-show moralizing may have unintended consequences: Readers might sympathize more with Kitty than with her smugly entitled jet-setter nemeses.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2010
Sunny Alvarezs life is looking decidedly bleak. For what seems like the umpteenth time, her perennial fianc', TV celebrity detective Mac Reilly, has postponed their wedding in favor of a demanding case. Tired of playing second banana to Macs career, Sunny impulsively hops a jet to Paris on Christmas Eve, where she meets the tender, dashing, and oh-so empathetic Eddie Johanssen, who convinces her to fly on to Monte Carlo instead. Bad move. Deep into her lonely holiday pity party, Sunny meets the predatory and unfortunately named Kitty Ratte, a sociopathic prostitute and jewelry designer Maha Mondragon, an enigmatic Indian businesswoman who makes Sunny an offer she cant, but should refuse. While Sunny embarks on a dangerous mission to Mumbai for Mahas jewelry company, Eddie is blackmailed concerning Kittys deviant sexcapades, and only one personsuper-sleuth Mac Reillycan save them both. As bright and breezy as a sun-drenched Riviera beach, Adlers taut romantic mystery manages to thrum with palpable tension.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)