Alison Koff's husband, Sandy, tells her that all their money is gone and that he's going back to his first wife. Alison is left with Maplebark Manor, the 18-room mansion they bought and renovated. The bank is threatening to foreclose, and Alison's part-time job writing features for the local paper doesn't pay much, so she puts the house on the market and sets out to find more work. She is annoyed by, and then later attracted to, Cullie Harrington, the photographer who comes to take pictures of her house for the real-estate brochure. Housekeeping is the only job Alison can find, and her employer turns out to be the celebrity-biographer Melanie Moloney, who's working on a tell-all book about a prominent newspaper owner; Alison has hardly begun work when her boss is murdered. Alison is the prime suspect, but she manages to identify the real killer, discovering some shocking secrets about her own family along the way. She also sheds all the trappings of her upscale 1980s lifestyle and finds love. A bright, lively comedy that zips right along. Mary Ellen Quinn
From Kirkus Reviews
Suburban ex-housewife, and admittedly shallow Jewish princess, Alison Waxman Koff turns down-and-out maid, murder suspect, and PI in this desperate-to-please but ultimately suffocating first novel. Alison is a prime casualty of the crushing blow the 1987 stock-market crash deals Layton, Conn. When her haberdasher husband loses his shirt, he dumps her for his ex-wife, leaving Alison with an unfinanced mansion and no idea how to survive without a meal- ticket hubbie. In a cold town where love means letting him drive your Lexus, she hawks her furs and supplements her small-town newspaper writing with a stint as maid to celebrity-chronicling author Melanie Moloney, hoping to stave off foreclosure and to land an assignment with Moloney's People magazine contacts. No go. The only things she'll get are spending money, dishpan hands, a boyfriend in visiting photographer Cullie Harrington, and a murder rap when she finds Moloney bludgeoned at her desk. Whodunit? The answer is closely tied to Moloney's latest tell-all about the secret life of Alison's boss, Alistair Downs (n Al Downey of Queens), an Arthur Murray instructor turned senator and newspaper mogul. Turns out his past is sordid and involves half of Layton. Alison zips about town, sleuthing with finished manuscript in hand and wisecracks on lips. (Her acerbic humor flares in prison commodes and during vulgar sex scenes.) Lapses in common sense abound: If she's short on cash, why not auction the Picasso or sell out to the TV tabloid vultures? She can't do the latter because this murder rap has given her integrity. The proof: She's keeping lusty though thin-walleted lover Cullie. The dialogue's as probing as the stuff in Lichtenstein's speech bubbles (``Robin, don't tell me you have to sell your coats too?''), and occasionally as funny. Fickle suburban camp. (Literary Guild alternate selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Booklist
Reviewed by Mary Ellen Quinn
Alison Koff's husband, Sandy, tells her that all their money is gone and that he's going back to his first wife. Alison is left with Maplebark Manor, the 18-room mansion they bought and renovated. The bank is threatening to foreclose, and Alison's part-time job writing features for the local paper doesn't pay much, so she puts the house on the market and sets out to find more work. She is annoyed by, and then later attracted to, Cullie Harrington, the photographer who comes to take pictures of her house for the real-estate brochure. Housekeeping is the only job Alison can find, and her employer turns out to be the celebrity-biographer Melanie Moloney, who's working on a tell-all book about a prominent newspaper owner; Alison has hardly begun work when her boss is murdered. Alison is the prime suspect, but she manages to identify the real killer, discovering some shocking secrets about her own family along the way. She also sheds all the trappings of her upscale 1980s lifestyle and finds love. A bright, lively comedy that zips right along.
Copyright ©1994, American Library Association. All rights reserved
