Gillian Roberts (1) (1939–)

Amanda Pepper is back! This time she is on the case for a different kind of mystery. Pitted against the Moral Ecologists, a group hellbent on censorship, Amanda must stop them from ruining her ability to teach English. The plot thickens early on when Reverend Harvey Spiers, leader of the Moral Ecologists, shows up at a fundraiser hosted by Edward and Theodora Roederer. The Roederers are wealthy staunch supporters of free speech and annually give a ton of money to the community, including Amanda's prep school. First red flag? Spier's son and Roederer's son are close friends. Second? Jake and Griffin are in Amanda's class. Both are angsty teens with family issues that go beyond morality and wealth. Of course, the protesting gets out of hand and someone winds up dead. But it wouldn't be an Amanda Pepper mystery if Amanda didn't find herself in a wee bit of danger herself.
The ongoing joke is that Amanda does not know Mackenzie's full name so whenever she goes to introduce him to someone new she stumbles. Why she can't call him "C.K." is beyond me.
As an aside, the details are a little dated. This was written in an age when photoshopping the Mona Lisa with a scowl was good fun. Technology has come a long way since the days of putting grins on dogs.… (mer)

What is a mild mannered prep school teacher doing in seedy Atlantic City trying to solve a mystery? In a nutshell, photographer and fun girl, Sasha, is trouble and in trouble. Even though she is one of Amanda's best friends, on her own she is a handful. Twice divorced, 6' tall with wild raven-dark hair and bad choices in men. What could possibly go wrong? Add Atlantic City, gambling, crazy people, and a dead body to the mix and you have a whole new Amanda Pepper mystery. Sasha convinces Amanda to take a vacation with her to Atlantic City while she is on a photography assignment. Once there somehow she and Amanda are tangled up in the death of a well-liked financier who finds money for the elderly and underserved. Tangled because Jesse Reese was found in Sasha's and there is a witness who saw the two of them together entering the room...
The breadcrumbs of clues: Frankie gave Sasha the upgraded hotel room, hoping for a date. Does he have something to do with it? Homeless lady babbles about losing her fortune. Who is she and why does she latch on to Amanda? In truth, I wanted Jesse to have faked his own death. That would have been a fun twist.
While Amanda is trying to clear Sasha of homicide charges, she is also trying to detangle her relationship with her cop. Mackenzie follows Amanda in hopes of talking about their relationship. She spends more time playing detective than figuring out where her heart is hiding.… (mer)

Meet Amanda Pepper, a thirty year old school teacher who just broke up with yet another boyfriend...much to her mother's chagrin. When Amanda is not trying to quit boyfriends or smoking she is stumbling into deadly crime scenes. Only Liza Nichols is no stranger to Amanda. She was a coworker of Amanda's and engaged to wealthy, influential senator-hopeful, Hayden Cole. She was also found murdered on Ms. Pepper's living room floor. And that's how the trouble started.
When it comes to the antics of Amanda Pepper, you have to let reality go. There are things she does and says that I cannot imagine a sane person doing or saying. The misconception that she and Liza were very close, for example. Mrs. Nichols, Liza's own mother, was convinced Liza and Amanda were the best of best friends. Future mother-in-law, Mrs. Cole, thought they had been friends since childhood and knew each other as intimately as sisters. Why doesn't Amanda think that these misconceptions are super weird and why isn't she telling the police about them? As an aside, my doctor assumed I took an antibiotic before surgery and when I didn't correct her (because I hadn't), it bugged me for days.
When a second murder victim is found, again with ties to Amanda, she is assigned police protection in the form of a hunky date-material detective. Her sister and mother salivate at the thought of them as a couple.
Confessional: when they solve the crimes I wish Pepper had put two and two together sooner. Her knowledge of Shakespeare's Macbeth would have cracked the case wide open if she had just done her homework.… (mer)