Extra Credit

October 1, 2012
Barbieri’s diverting seventh mystery featuring English professor Alison Bergeron (after 2011’s Physical Education) finds Alison juggling her teaching duties at St. Thomas University in the Bronx with far more dangerous pursuits. Second marriages for both Alison and her new husband, NYPD homicide cop Bobby Crawford, create a spate of complex and delicate family relationships. Alison’s 19-year-old twin stepdaughters bring resentment and some wild romantic entanglements, while Bobby is a little too friendly with ex-wife Christine. But when Christine’s brother, Chick, is found dead in his sleazy apartment with $250,000 tucked into his mattress, events spin out of control. Alison, sarcastic and brash, wins no friends in pursuing the source of the money, as well as losing the trust of her best friend and the seriously annoying Bobby. Quirky characters complement a plot that offers a number of entertaining if sometimes illogical surprises. An irresistible hook at the conclusion will draw readers to the next installment. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider.

November 1, 2012
A wacky stepfamily distracts a college professor from her boring job. Most Ph.D.'s would kill for a tenure-track position at a university in New York. But Alison Bergeron (Physical Education, 2011, etc.) has a long litany of complaints about her post at St. Thomas University. The students are lazy, her boss, Sister Mary McLaughlin, is a martinet, and her colleagues wear ridiculous sweaters adorned with applique pumpkins and fail to appreciate her rapier wit. The only bright spot is Mary Lou Bannerman, an older creative-writing student who burns to pen a novel about her husband's murder and who brings Alison coffee and muffins from really good bakeries. No wonder Alison gets sucked into the untimely death of her husband's ex-wife's brother. First, Chick Stepkowski disappears without a trace, resurfacing just in time to hand Alison's twin stepdaughters, Erin and Meaghan, $5,000 apiece at their 19th birthday party. Days later, he's found dead in his cheesy Mount Vernon apartment with $250,000 stuffed in his mattress. Despite his suicide note, his sister Christine insists that Chick was murdered. When Chick's ex-wife, 6-foot exotic dancer Sassy Du Pris, threatens to burn down the house Christine shares with her new husband, Tim, and his four troll-like children, Alison thinks maybe she's right. Or right enough to talk her best friend, ex-priest Kevin McManus, into confronting Sassy at a strip show. Alison's so absorbed in the Stepkowskis' dysfunction that she neglects her other best friend, Max Rayfield, with disastrous results--although not as disastrous as her attempt to ferret out a killer. Sorting out her priorities might not be such a bad idea for Alison, now on her seventh and least focused foray into amateur sleuthing.

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December 1, 2012

In her seventh outing (after Physical Education), English professor Alison Bergeron grapples with family disorder when her husband Bobby's former brother-in-law is murdered and a whole lot of cash is left behind.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2012
Nothing good comes from being involved with a spouse's ex-inlaws, college professor and amateur sleuth Alison Bergeron discovers. The birthday party she hosts for husband NYPD Detective Bobby Crawford's twin 19-year-old daughters turns bizarre when the girls' long-lost uncle, Chick Stepkowski, presents an unseemly monetary gift. When Crawford returns it, he finds Chick dying, an apparent suicide, in a decrepit apartment with $250,000 in cash in his mattress. Convinced that her brother's death is murder, Crawford's ex, Christine, turns to Alison, who's neglecting her best friend, Max, and suspecting a stepdaughter of cheating on an exam. Meanwhile Alison's beloved dog is poisoned, followed by home and car break-ins, and the only bright spot in Alison's life seems to be her new creative-writing student, a stylish woman who offers pastries and sympathy. Crawford and Max repeatedly urge Alison to give up sleuthing but to no avail. Barbieri continues her characters' development in the sixth of her series of entertaining chick-lit cozies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)