Bubbles Ablaze by
Sarah Strohmeyer
pbk out May 04
(Headline)
at £6.99
For fans of the Ditsy-But-Astute-Female School of Crimewriting, Bubbles Yablonsky
is your woman: the name, after all, says it all. Expert hairdresser and aspiring
investigative journalist desperate for a big story, Bubbles is the Pennsylvania
coalfield's answer to Sam Spade - but with a slightly different set of social skills.
Lured by a phoney message from a love hotel where she is awaiting the arrival of her
gorgeous boyfriend Steve Stiletto, Bubbles discovers first of all her injured paramour,
then a dead body, and finally she is trapped in a mine by an explosion. It's clear to
her that her cousin Roxanne's husband Stinky Koolball (yes, really) is somehow
implicated, and once she has escaped from the mine, the ensuing adventure involves
not only tracking down Stinky but working out the recent mining and business history,
both official and unofficial, of the area.
On hand to help, whether wanted are not, are Bubbles' thoroughly bonkers mother
and the latter's conspiracy-theorist and weapon-toting pal Genevieve; it's a good job
that Bubbles' redoubtable daughter Jane is also on the scene to provide some
maturity of thought and deed. Jane, despite being besotted by a somewhat sub-
species teenage male, is the Teenager from Heaven (she actually asks her mother's
permission to cut classes). And muddying the investigative waters slightly are the
Slagville Sirens, a Stepford-Husbands style sorority of miners' wives who keep their
husbands under control with judiciously timed culinary tit-bits.
This book is a lot of fun even for those who are not actually fans of the Ditsy-Female
School; it's well-written, amusing and interesting - and a welcome addition to the
series.
Bubbles Ablaze by
Sarah Strohmeyer
