Gillian Roberts, All's Well That Ends

All's Well That End's Well

Gillian Roberts

Ballantine, Feb 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 034548021X

In Philadelphia, the police rule that Phoebe Ennis most likely committed suicide from mixing alcohol and pills. Her friend, Philly Prep schoolteacher Amanda Pepper, is stunned by the death, but has no reason to think the official verdict is wrong, especially since her spouse, former homicide detective C.K. Mackenzie, accepts the depressing fact that Phoebe killed herself, though he is preoccupied helping his Louisiana-based family recover from the hurricanes.

However, her stepdaughter Sasha, from one of Amanda's previous husbands, insists the cops are wrong; that Phoebe is a murder victim. Mandy reluctantly reconsiders what she knows and soon finds reasons to question the official verdict. She drafts her spouse into investigating and soon finds many suspects with motives, but who had the opportunity remains the issue as C.K. continues to blow off her clues as inconsequential.

The apparent last book in this delightful series is a fine entry in which fans will reluctantly agree with the title. Though not quite as peppery as some of the sly previous thirteen entries (see A HOLE IN JUAN and TILL THE END OF TIM), but in many ways more realistic since it is difficult to be droll when your best friend kills herself and you saw no signs. Amateur sleuth readers will enjoy Amanda's last "Agathism."

Harriet Klausner