From Publishers Weekly
Shortly after Amanda Pepper slips out of the headmaster's annual address to the student body in Anthony Awardβwinner Roberts's assured 12th novel (after 2003's Claire and Present Danger) to feature the Philly Prep English teacher, Amanda finds her mind on Steinbeck and her foot on the hand of a comatose man at the bottom of the school's marble staircase. The victim, who later dies at the hospital, turns out to be Tomas Severin, of the Severins, one of Philadelphia's finest old families. Apparently, he drank a cup of tea laced with a date-rape drug before his fatal fall. Amanda and her fiancΓ©, C.K. Mackenzie, a retired cop now a full-time graduate student in criminology, investigate and discover any number of suspects who might have wished Tomas dead. Meanwhile, Amanda's sister, mother and future mother-in-law plague her about wedding plans. Amanda displays a sensitivity to her students that reflects a new maturity. Amusing secondary characters help further the story line rather than confuse it as in less skillfully plotted cozies. Fans will cheer as Amanda manages to maintain her sense of humor and focus on what's important in her pursuit of both a killer and the perfect wedding.
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From Booklist
The latest Amanda Pepper mystery gets right to the point: ducking out of the school auditorium (Pepper is a teacher and a "rank amateur" sleuth), Amanda runs right into the body of a man who apparently took a nasty fall down the stairs. Soon she learns that the victim, Tomas Severin, is a member of a highly placed family, and that not too long before his fall, he had been in her classroom. After Severin dies from his head injury, Amanda discovers he had been about to contact her because of some odd phone calls he had received, and the victim's family asks her to find out who's responsible for his death. As usual, the book mixes light and dark, humor and drama. The ending is clever (though not entirely unpredictable), and the cast of characters, some of whom are potential suspects, is uniformly engaging. Fans of the series will be pleased. David Pitt
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