In Karen Bergreen's hilarious "who-dun-it", FOLLOWING
POLLY, she tells the story of the hapless Alice and her
adventures dodging the police and doing her best to find
out who really killed the golden actress with the tarnished
secrets. Part cozy mystery, part romance, and all parts
outrageously funny, this novel is one of the most unique
tales I've run across this year.
The day Alice Teakle loses her job as an assistant casting
director, life seems a little shaky. After all, the sudden
departure from her floundering career was abrupt and a bit
hard on her self-confidence. The combination of time on her
hands, nothing better to do, and a chance encounter with
her old schoolmate, result in Alice spending her time
following Polly Linley Dawson around New York City. In
retrospect, that probably wasn't Alice's best idea.
Especially when Alice happens to stumble across Polly's
dead body and suddenly becomes the prime suspect in her
murder. Looking back, perhaps she should have taken up
knitting, or something.
Alice and Polly had been schoolmates at Harvard, but that's
not to say they were friends. Polly breathed the rarefied
air of the popular, while Alice just trudged along doing
the best she could (and lusting after an upperclassman she
dubbed "Charlie"). After graduation, Polly went on to
become a twinkling star -- the owner of a fabulous lingerie
line, and married to a top movie director. Alice followed
Polly's exploits as she herself worked a series of iffy
jobs, including a stint at the same law firm as her beloved
Charlie. She had always envied Polly. But, after shadowing
Polly for weeks as the golden girl went about her
mysterious daily errands, finding Polly lying in a pool of
blood suddenly puts an end to Alice's obsession and forces
her underground to avoid being imprisoned for a crime she
didn't commit. She finds herself contacting her old crush,
Charlie, who is now a lawyer, and enlisting his help in
clearing her name, but it might include doing a favor or
two for him in return. See, Charlie has an obsession of his
own-- clearing his father's name of false charges. Working
together, helping each other, the two find themselves
slowly but surely falling into something that looks a
little bit like love.
FOLLOWING POLLY is one madcap adventure after another,
with scenes that will remind the reader of the escapades
of I Love Lucy one minute, and the cloak and dagger
intrigue of Jessica Fletcher the next. A stand up
comedian and former lawyer, author Karen Bergreen brings
her bright and sometimes biting humor to the pages of this
book, making for a completely enjoyable reading experience.
Would you call Alice Teakle a stalker? Or just someone
with an, um, healthy obsession with golden girl Polly
Linley Dawson? No one much notices Alice: not her boss,
not the neighbors, not even her mother. Besides, everyone
follows Polly: her business selling high-end lingerie you
can only imagine her wearing, her all-over-the-social-
pages marriage to movie director Humphrey Dawson, her chic
looks, her wardrobe. Alice just follows her a little
more….closely.
Yet one Manhattan autumn afternoon, when Alice loses her
job and starts to follow Polly, she stumbles on the object
of her attention sprawled dead on the floor of a boutique
and is forced to become truly invisible. Because she’s
accused of murder. But can another obsession help save
Alice? Charlie is Alice’s longtime unattainable crush.
He might be able to help her out of the mess she’s in…in
return for a favor or two, that is. But how will Alice
find out if Charlie is really the man she thinks he is?
I guess it's natural to want things that others have but there is a huge difference between benign and morbid envy. This sounds like a book that is chock full of suspense and humor. I look forward to reading it. Thanks for the great review. (Connie Fischer 9:07pm November 16, 2011)
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