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Laura Charles is 'new money' -- her father Owen made his fortune in clams. Cassandra Slick used to be a cop before she took over as head of security for Laura. Judson, the butler, wants Laura and Slick to help his niece, Rachel Brougham. Rachel has stolen but replaced $25,000 of Owen Charles Foundation money given to The Broad Street Players (BSP) community theatre company. Unfortunately for Rachel, the money has been stolen again. Unfortunately for Eugene 'Rock' Scherer, his late night at a Garden State Parkway rest stop ended in his death. Is Rock's murder connected to the theft? Or to another secret, of which there are many? The story shifts back and forth between what is going on in the lives of Slick and Laura and what is going on in the lives of the various people connected with the current BSP's production of 'sorry i missed your birthday', a musical written by one of the owners of the BSP. Karson and Addison Taylor are the owners, and this is their first musical production after years of increasingly successful non-musical productions. They are way over budget. Dale Mabrey is the choreographer, and he is running from creditors and a nasty little incident at Disneyworld, Florida. Blair Borden is the production stage manager, which may be more job than she can handle. She is also handling Randall Garret, one of the actors; he is coming to the conclusion that she is more than he can handle. David Castrato is the assistant stage manager, with delusions of rescuing 'sorry' from any accident which may befall it, up to and including going on as the star at the very last minute. Beautee Holsum is another actor, who can't possibly be as good as she seems, can she? Mary Wilbon does a wonderful job of skewering community theatre types; think Sharyn McCrumb doing the same to sci-fi fans in BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN. The mystery is pretty good, too. What I didn't enjoy was the pontificating. Wilbon knows whereof she speaks, but the way in which she conveys this information bogs down the story. Much of the narration could be better presented as dialogue, which would improve the pace and flesh out some of the characters. Some judicious editing could probably make this happen. There is quite a bit of sex in NAUGHTY LITTLE SECRETS; most of it is fairly graphic and/or homosexual. Some of the sex scenes are humorous, although probably not for the people engaged in the activity. I didn't find the sex offensive, but I know there are readers who would; caveat emptor. For the most part, I enjoyed NAUGHTY LITTLE SECRETS. Wilbon knows the territory, has a good plot and interesting characters. Some of the names are more cutesy than I like and typecast the character -- Beautee Holsum -- but, again, that's just my opinion. What I found particularly refreshing was this: while the sexual preferences of the characters are known to all, the emotions and reactions of these same characters are not dictated ONLY by their sexual preferences. These are people with real lives, whose sexual identities are not the only definition of who they are or why they do what they do. If Wilbon can get past the cutesy and the verbiage, NAUGHTY LITTLE SECRETS could be the start of a Evanovich-like career in the mystery field. One can only hope.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, June 2004
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
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Laura Charles is 'new money' -- her father Owen made his fortune in clams. Cassandra Slick used to be a cop before she took over as head of security for Laura. Judson, the butler, wants Laura and Slick to help his niece, Rachel Brougham. Rachel has stolen but replaced $25,000 of Owen Charles Foundation money given to The Broad Street Players (BSP) community theatre company. Unfortunately for Rachel, the money has been stolen again. Unfortunately for Eugene 'Rock' Scherer, his late night at a Garden State Parkway rest stop ended in his death. Is Rock's murder connected to the theft? Or to another secret, of which there are many? The story shifts back and forth between what is going on in the lives of Slick and Laura and what is going on in the lives of the various people connected with the current BSP's production of 'sorry i missed your birthday', a musical written by one of the owners of the BSP. Karson and Addison Taylor are the owners, and this is their first musical production after years of increasingly successful non-musical productions. They are way over budget. Dale Mabrey is the choreographer, and he is running from creditors and a nasty little incident at Disneyworld, Florida. Blair Borden is the production stage manager, which may be more job than she can handle. She is also handling Randall Garret, one of the actors; he is coming to the conclusion that she is more than he can handle. David Castrato is the assistant stage manager, with delusions of rescuing 'sorry' from any accident which may befall it, up to and including going on as the star at the very last minute. Beautee Holsum is another actor, who can't possibly be as good as she seems, can she? Mary Wilbon does a wonderful job of skewering community theatre types; think Sharyn McCrumb doing the same to sci-fi fans in BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN. The mystery is pretty good, too. What I didn't enjoy was the pontificating. Wilbon knows whereof she speaks, but the way in which she conveys this information bogs down the story. Much of the narration could be better presented as dialogue, which would improve the pace and flesh out some of the characters. Some judicious editing could probably make this happen. There is quite a bit of sex in NAUGHTY LITTLE SECRETS; most of it is fairly graphic and/or homosexual. Some of the sex scenes are humorous, although probably not for the people engaged in the activity. I didn't find the sex offensive, but I know there are readers who would; caveat emptor. For the most part, I enjoyed NAUGHTY LITTLE SECRETS. Wilbon knows the territory, has a good plot and interesting characters. Some of the names are more cutesy than I like and typecast the character -- Beautee Holsum -- but, again, that's just my opinion. What I found particularly refreshing was this: while the sexual preferences of the characters are known to all, the emotions and reactions of these same characters are not dictated ONLY by their sexual preferences. These are people with real lives, whose sexual identities are not the only definition of who they are or why they do what they do. If Wilbon can get past the cutesy and the verbiage, NAUGHTY LITTLE SECRETS could be the start of a Evanovich-like career in the mystery field. One can only hope.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, June 2004
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
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