See Isabelle Run

February 7, 2005
It's hard to believe that the author of the Alex Bernier books (Ecstasy
, etc., under her maiden name of Beth Saulnier) could produce this awkward mystery. Like a gawky teenager, there's some appeal here, but the self-consciousness and gaffes make it a little painful to witness. Isabelle Leonard has moved to New York City to be with her future husband only to be left at the altar. Broke and friendless, she lands a job at Becky Belden Multimedia, the eponymous Becky being a cross between Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart. Isabelle quickly becomes aware that employees are turning up dead left and right, a fact that apparently no one else has noted. Her instant best friend, a stereotypical gay co-worker, Trevor Hopkins, offers support but no help and, inevitably, meets an unfortunate fate, as does Isabelle's immediate boss. Meanwhile, handsome Max Collins, a Becky Belden executive, becomes a love interest tainted with a predictable measure of mystery and suspicion. Between Isabelle's juvenile handling of men in bars and her fiction writing, she picks up remarkably few clues, but eventually finds herself in an all-too-predictable showdown. Isabelle seems like a sweet kid, but she's a little tedious, and she's found herself in a story plagued with stiff and obvious plotting. Agent, Jimmy Vines. (Mar. 21)

Forecast:
A four-city author tour, along with advance praise by Judith Kelman, should ensure a good start.

January 1, 2005
When her society groom runs away with her best friend on what was supposed to be their honeymoon trip to Fiji, Isabelle Leonard attends her fancy wedding reception anyway and dances on the table. Her spunk is so impressive that the papers run her picture with a caption, "Give Em Hell Isabelle." Now stuck with an unfurnished uptown apartment she can't afford, Isabelle waits tables part time and subsists on peanut butter sandwiches. Her luck appears to change when she's hired as an underling for Becky Belden, a sort of Martha Stewart on happy pills. As icing on the cake, one of the executives shows some serious romantic interest in her. Something, however, is not right in the "creepy-chipper" world of Becky Belden Multimedia, beginning with a string of dead employees. When Isabelle starts investigating, someone tries to kill her too. This delightfully humorous, suspenseful mystery takes the reader on a neatly twisted path to its solution, complete with clever means and an ingenious motive. Fans of Sarah Mason's Playing James and Jane Blackwood's A Hard Man Is Good To Find will enjoy this. A lively plot, witty dialog, feisty heroine, and idiosyncratic secondary characters make this a must-add for public libraries of all sizes. Bloom also writes the Alex Bernier series (Reliable Sources) as Beth Saulnier and lives in New York City. [See Mystery Prepub, LJ 11/1/04.]-Shelley Mosley, Glendale P.L. Syst., AZ

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2005
Bloom's freewheeling debut introduces a captivating protagonist named Isabelle Leonard. When her fiance dumps her at the altar, the feisty Isabelle doesn't fall apart. Instead, she dances on the table at her reception. Her actions earn a front-page mention in a major New York newspaper, and in the resulting 15 minutes of fame, decorating maven Becky Belden hires Isabelle to work at her magazine--part of Belden's vast media empire. It seems like a dream job until Isabelle's boss dies under odd circumstances, and Isabelle discovers that many of Becky's employees have died recently. Soon, Isabelle herself is targeted, and in typical hardheaded fashion, she begins a zealous investigation into the deaths. The more clues she discovers, the more likely it seems that her new executive boyfriend might be the murderer, or the one ordering the murders. Bloom adds just enough serious moments to keep the story from becoming too frothy, but Isabelle's quirky personality allows for plenty of fun. As the broke-and-beautiful heroine dashes through Manhattan to avoid being murdered, readers may be tempted to take up the media's cry of "Give 'em hell, Isabelle!" A first-rate flight of fancy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)