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BUBBLES UNBOUND
by Sarah Strohmeyer
Signet, March 2002
341 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0451205448


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Journalist (despite gaining a degree in international relations, then a graduate

degree in English literature) Sarah Strohmeyer wrote her popular Barbie Unbound: A Parody of the Barbie Obsession as a reaction to the simmering hatred most women foment. who do not resemble Barbie. And how many of us could possibly achieve that inhuman appearance, anyway? In her role of journalist, Strohmeyer interviewed best-selling humorous crime fiction author, Janet Evanovich and admitted that she, too,would like to write along the same lines as the Stephanie Plum novels. Evanovich encouraged her ambition and was, in fact, responsible for the title of Strohmeyer's foray into the genre. Bubbles UnboundÝ had a title but no character or plot. Strohmeyer had had the inspiration for her Barbie Unbound when driving her vacuum cleaner and inspiration for the intricasies of Bubbles Unbound struck on a similar occasion.

Strohmeyer openly acknowledges her debt to Evanovich so it is not to be wondered at that there are many parallels between the books. Bubbles' mother Lulu is the counterpart of Stephanie Plum's Granny Mazur and Steve Stiletto could well be the enigmatic Ranger in another guise. Luckily, Bubbles' friend and admirer, policeman Mickey Sinkler, a far cry from Stephanie Plum's on-again off-again lover Joseph Morelli, is not that creation's exact analogue for Bubbles has taken a vow to abstain from sex. Oh yes, and cigarettes, as well. There is a parallel with another woman author of humorous mystery fiction, Joan Hess, in her Claire Malloy mode, in that Bubbles, like Claire, has a teenage daughter. Like the heroines of Evanovich's and Hess's work (including Arly Hanks) Bubbles was married and betrayed by her former husband. Like Strohmeyer herself, Bubbles had put her faithless husband through college so he could become a lawyer, but the author's husband has not changed his name to Chip nor deserted his wife in favour of pastures new.

Bubbles Yablonsky is a mother struggling to support her daughter Jane. She is a hairdresser but is desperately trying to qualify for a more lucrative job by taking

courses at a community college. She fails all but one course, that one obvious for a hairdresser who is the automatic recipient of her clients' secrets - journalism. Bubbles dabbles in free-lance reporting and is called out by her former lecturer Mr. Salvo, night\ editor of the local newspaper, the News-Times, to cover the story involving a potential suicide who is threatening to jump off a bridge. Steve Stiletto, who is in town only temporarily, is assigned as the photographer to cover the story with Bubbles. After they leave the scene they come across a dead body then find a drunken socialite who has apparently been responsible for the corpse. Bubbles ties the incident to the purported suicide of a high school girl who had come to her for a hairdo some ten years previously. Despite the husband of the socialite, the most powerful man in the town, attempting to prevent Bubbles' investigation by all means at his command, up to and including murder, Bubbles doggedly pursues her search for the truth about the decade-old death, which she considers suspicious.

The aforementioned similarities to the work of Janet Evanovich notwithstanding, the book is not a clone of that writer's novels. There is a darker feel to this work, dealing, as it does, with the authority one man in a totally powerful position as

the largest employer in a community can wield. The humour, too, is not quite of the same standard as that of the other author. Nonetheless, the plotting is excellent and the puzzle well thought out. The writing, too is very good despite there not being much depth of characterisation. The comparisons I have drawn are really inevitable but readers should approach this oeuvre with an open mind. No fair-minded reader can claim it is other than an enjoyable frolic. Should Strohmeyer's projected second mystery, Bubbles Befuddled, eventuate, I anticipate reading it with pleasure. NOTE: Obviously the author changed her projected title for her second novel from Bubbles BefuddledÝ to Bubbles In Trouble.

Note: This is a review of the Australian hardcover edition released October 30, 2001.

Reviewed by Denise Wels, September 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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