Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Dead on Her Feet
Christine Jorgensen
Class/Genre: Mystery
Series: Stella the Stargazer # 5
Walker, Jul 1999, $23.95, 264 pp.
When the price for crickets rises to eight cents a head, Stella the Stargazer wonders why she left her secure but boring job as an accountant. Though bordering on poverty, Stella realizes that becoming an astrological columnist for the Denver Daily Orion was needed for her sanity. Still she needs extra cash so that her spoiled pet anoles, Fluffy and Lips, continue to dine on gourmet crickets. Stella accepts a job as an assistant director at the Magic Circle Theater. She quickly understands that her main task is to intercede between the owner, Barbara Steadman and everyone else because the boss drives them crazy.
Stella's job radically changes when she finds Barbara barely alive as she hangs from a prop. The prime suspect is Barbara's teenage son, but Stella thinks the lad is just the fall guy. She begins her own investigation and quickly concludes that the real culprit will do anything to shut down this theatrical group, including eliminating a particular stargazer.
DEAD ON HER FEET, the latest Stella amateur sleuth tale is a humorous tale that does not take its characters seriously yet still provides an enjoyable twisting mystery for readers. That ability to mix a jocular, offbeat cast inside an intelligent who-done-it demonstrates the talent of Christine T. Jorgensen. Stella's column and her boy friend add to the enjoyment. This particular novel is one of the more entertaining books in one of the better series that the genre offers.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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