The autumn issue of my newsletter is live! Check out the latest edition here: https://mailchi.mp/94d138ed247b/the-great-books-guide where you’ll find unserious advice…
STUDY GUIDE FOR MURDER. NOW AVAILABLE!
Homework and homicide collide when English teacher Liz Hopewell moves from Brooklyn to New Jersey. She hopes to leave behind her complicated past, but violence follows her to suburbia when Elliot Tumbleson’s head has a deadly encounter with a golf club. Her golf club. A second murder, a case of mistaken identity, and a rollicking trip back to Brooklyn all point to one prime suspect in each crime. Liz embarks upon a double investigation of homicides past and present, using her gift for literary theory to unearth clues that she finds as compelling as forensic evidence. Can this bookish and street-smart heroine find the killer without becoming the next victim?
MURDER IN FIFTH POSITION. NOW AVAILABLE!
Ballerina Leah Siderova has a lot in common with Superman. They both wear tights, perform for a fickle crowd, and worry about the state of the world. Unfortunately, only one of them can fly. And he wasn’t available the night Leland Vanderhof fell sixteen stories from his penthouse apartment to the pavement below. The scene of the crime was a glittering party, where two hundred dressed-to-kill guests gathered to celebrate three finalists for the Vanderhof Prize for Choreography. All profess shock at the tragic end of Leland’s life. One of them knows exactly how it happened. A second murder and a mysterious disappearance (or two) are bad enough. But when her extremely significant other, homicide detective Jonah Sobol, shows up with a glam new partner, Leah has to come up with a whole new set of moves. Can Leah find the killer, get the guy, win the prize, and rescue her career? Fans of Agatha Christie and Amazon’s hit series Étoile are assured of a front row seat, from the opening credits to the final curtain.
Exposing and pushing back against the girl-sleuth conventions makes this series both familiar and quirky. Robbins reveals just enough about her heroine's life to make her appealing while leaving enough unresolved to whet the appetite for a follow-up.
Kirkus
Robbins is in a class of her own with this thoroughly engrossing, occasionally funny, wry examination of the world of teaching, students, and the special challenges of solving a murder. Very highly recommended as an exceptional stand-out powered not just by its mystery, but by a psychological atmosphere that brings characters and setting to life to keep its action fast-paced and vivid.
Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer Midwest Book Review