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Amanda Pepper #11
Claire and Present Danger
In the City of Brotherly Love, nobody knows a thing about Emmie Cade, a young widow who “appeared from nowhere,” and in the blink of an eye was engaged to Leo Fairchild, a middle-aged bachelor with a fortune. However, as her marriage date approaches, Emmie’s mother-in-law to be, the ailing, autocratic Claire Fairchild, receives anonymous letters. They suggest, none too subtly, that there’s a great deal to learn about the mysterious young woman, none of it good, and much of it involving the violent deaths of the men in her life.
Enter Amanda Pepper who, after completing her day of teaching English at Philly Prep, now moonlights as a P.I. along with C.K. Mackenzie, former homicide detective, current graduate student at Penn. The two of them are hired by Mrs. Fairchild to find out who the charming but evasive Emmie Cade really is. At thirty-two, the young woman has changed her address and name more often than some women change nail polish—and deliberately or not, she’s provided no clues or access to her past.
For Amanda, becoming C.K. Mackenzie’s investigative partner is an exhilarating change from the politics and problems of the new school term, and a welcome distraction from the ordeal of meeting her own prospective in-laws. She’s determined to prove herself an able investigator by ferreting out Emmie Cade’s secrets, but almost immediately, instead of looking at events of the past, she’s forced to deal with the here and now—including murder.
Brilliantly plotted, deeply perceptive, as delicious and sparkling as fine champagne, Gillian Roberts’s new Amanda Pepper masterpiece doesn’t miss a trick. More than ever, she’s “the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers . . . giving more wit per page than most writers give per book.” *
Enter Amanda Pepper who, after completing her day of teaching English at Philly Prep, now moonlights as a P.I. along with C.K. Mackenzie, former homicide detective, current graduate student at Penn. The two of them are hired by Mrs. Fairchild to find out who the charming but evasive Emmie Cade really is. At thirty-two, the young woman has changed her address and name more often than some women change nail polish—and deliberately or not, she’s provided no clues or access to her past.
For Amanda, becoming C.K. Mackenzie’s investigative partner is an exhilarating change from the politics and problems of the new school term, and a welcome distraction from the ordeal of meeting her own prospective in-laws. She’s determined to prove herself an able investigator by ferreting out Emmie Cade’s secrets, but almost immediately, instead of looking at events of the past, she’s forced to deal with the here and now—including murder.
Brilliantly plotted, deeply perceptive, as delicious and sparkling as fine champagne, Gillian Roberts’s new Amanda Pepper masterpiece doesn’t miss a trick. More than ever, she’s “the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers . . . giving more wit per page than most writers give per book.” *
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 27, 2019
Wealthy bachelor Leo Fairchild has become engaged – finally, to Emme Cade. His mother, Claire, is happy for him, but has questions about his intended. … Claire doesn’t want to spoil the marriage, but she has gotten some strange warnings about Emme that were mailed to her from an anonymous source. Claire wants Amanda Pepper to check out Emme’s past before she says anything to her son. Amanda finds out Emme has used several different names, but before she can find out more, Claire is murdered. Is Emme involved???
December 12, 2025
This is the 11th book of the series by Gillian Roberts, and it is a credit to the author that it still feels fresh. She has done it through a combination of clever plots and new characters. This one is a tidy little mystery combined with meeting a new student class and offbeat prospective in-laws. It is a good beach read.
February 8, 2018
Fun - mystery plus good description of characters' personalities.
March 18, 2021
3.5. Had a bet on with my hubby who did it. I won!
August 5, 2023
Another enjoyable installment.
September 6, 2014
Claire and Present Danger by Gillian Roberts is book 11 of the Amanda Pepper mystery series set in contemporary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s the first week of school at Philly Prep. Amanda has trouble concentrating on her new classrooms full of young teenagers – her in-laws-to-be are coming to visit. Amanda’s petrified she will make a bad impression, and that her mother and C.K. Mackenzie’s mother will not get along. Amanda and C.K. have decided to get married, but have not yet set a date. Amanda is tired of being pressured by her mother to set a date, so that her sister Beth the event planner can arrange a big deal wedding.
C.K. attends university full time, no longer on the police force. To earn money for their future, Amanda and C.K. are both moonlighting for a private investigator. Amanda goes on her own to meet with a new client, wealthy Claire Fairchild. Claire wants her son Leo’s fiancée Emmie Cade investigated, before the wedding in 2 weeks’ time. Emmie suddenly appeared in Leo’s life, and has provided only vague answers to questions about her background. Listening to another prospective mother-in-law criticize her son’s fiancée makes Amanda defensive of Emmie at first…that is, until Claire reveals the threatening letters she has received that question Emmie Cade’s past.
Amanda feels overwhelmed with the challenge of tracing Emmie’s past when she won’t give straight answers. However Emmie has a friend, Vicky Baer, who Amanda can ask, and Amanda knows a school administrator in the Midwest who will help with records. C.K. has police contacts that can provide crime information on the cases mentioned by the threatening letters. Soon Amanda has plenty of clues to investigate.
Meanwhile at Philly Prep, a student’s mother objects to her daughter Melanie reading The Lord of the Flies, the classic Amanda assigned her ninth-graders so they could learn how evil can propagate in a crowd. It’s important to Amanda that her students learn to think on their own, and apply the lesson to understanding current world events. Amanda has to bamboozle her clueless bureaucrat principal to avoid changing her lesson plan.
Claire dies suddenly. Technically the investigation is over, since their client is dead, but Amanda does not want to give up seeking the truth about Emmie. The Mackenzies arrive early, a wedding date is set in a cute way, and everyone gets along. The story gets a bit hokey when Amanda finally puts all the clues together and rushes off to confront a killer.
Although it seems like the book was finished up in a hurry, it provides pleasant entertainment. It cleverly echoes the theme of “shunning”, from the Lord of the Flies, to Philly Prep, and in Emmie Cade’s past. Who was really guilty?
C.K. attends university full time, no longer on the police force. To earn money for their future, Amanda and C.K. are both moonlighting for a private investigator. Amanda goes on her own to meet with a new client, wealthy Claire Fairchild. Claire wants her son Leo’s fiancée Emmie Cade investigated, before the wedding in 2 weeks’ time. Emmie suddenly appeared in Leo’s life, and has provided only vague answers to questions about her background. Listening to another prospective mother-in-law criticize her son’s fiancée makes Amanda defensive of Emmie at first…that is, until Claire reveals the threatening letters she has received that question Emmie Cade’s past.
Amanda feels overwhelmed with the challenge of tracing Emmie’s past when she won’t give straight answers. However Emmie has a friend, Vicky Baer, who Amanda can ask, and Amanda knows a school administrator in the Midwest who will help with records. C.K. has police contacts that can provide crime information on the cases mentioned by the threatening letters. Soon Amanda has plenty of clues to investigate.
Meanwhile at Philly Prep, a student’s mother objects to her daughter Melanie reading The Lord of the Flies, the classic Amanda assigned her ninth-graders so they could learn how evil can propagate in a crowd. It’s important to Amanda that her students learn to think on their own, and apply the lesson to understanding current world events. Amanda has to bamboozle her clueless bureaucrat principal to avoid changing her lesson plan.
Claire dies suddenly. Technically the investigation is over, since their client is dead, but Amanda does not want to give up seeking the truth about Emmie. The Mackenzies arrive early, a wedding date is set in a cute way, and everyone gets along. The story gets a bit hokey when Amanda finally puts all the clues together and rushes off to confront a killer.
Although it seems like the book was finished up in a hurry, it provides pleasant entertainment. It cleverly echoes the theme of “shunning”, from the Lord of the Flies, to Philly Prep, and in Emmie Cade’s past. Who was really guilty?
July 13, 2015
Hard to choose between 3 and 4 stars, wishing for 3.5. Thank goodness I persevered until Chapter 5, for those first 4 were confusing, random, and messy. Once Chapter 5 got underway, we had a story, with a plot, and memorable characters, once I could remember which name was being currently used for the boyfriend. I'm not sure how the plot thread that lead to the revelation that the butler did NOT do it could have been woven more clearly, but once it dawned (at the end), it all made great sense. It all was just so much like a second draft of a novel, though.
When the writing was good, it was very very good: "Because," [the Romanian maid] said, "I look at my life and ask, what is life, anyway, and I think, Batya, life is tissue paper. Strong, ha! Like tissue. I am protected by tissue paper."
"We're only chapters in someone else's story."
"Somehow it would all work out. That had become my new mantra, but at the moment, my mantra's batteries had run out."
As a former schoolteacher I loved: "One of the often-overlooked good things about teaching is that it's very Zen, an ongoing lesson in living in the minute."
Enough; go find your own great quotes and memorable scenes. It's a book worth reading, for it has a depth of universal human struggle that touches us all. Just forgive the messiness of it.
When the writing was good, it was very very good: "Because," [the Romanian maid] said, "I look at my life and ask, what is life, anyway, and I think, Batya, life is tissue paper. Strong, ha! Like tissue. I am protected by tissue paper."
"We're only chapters in someone else's story."
"Somehow it would all work out. That had become my new mantra, but at the moment, my mantra's batteries had run out."
As a former schoolteacher I loved: "One of the often-overlooked good things about teaching is that it's very Zen, an ongoing lesson in living in the minute."
Enough; go find your own great quotes and memorable scenes. It's a book worth reading, for it has a depth of universal human struggle that touches us all. Just forgive the messiness of it.
November 12, 2013
Amanda Pepper is an English teacher at Philly Prep. In her spare time she is a PI working with her fiance. She is hired by Claire Fairchild to do a background check on her future daughter in law, Emmie Cade. Amanda finds a lot of information on Emmie, that she has changed her name at least 6 times in the past 5 years, has moved multiple times and has left a stream of dead exes. Before Amanda can report her findings to Mrs. Fairchild, the woman is found dead. The last person to see her was Emmie. Amanda still wants to find out what happened but has to deal with meeting her new in-laws and a visit from her own parents. This was a fun read and I enjoyed it. I would read more of these.
March 12, 2009
I'd started something by Gillian Roberts years ago and didn't like it. But I gave her another shot with Claire and Present Danger. I was a little worried at the start because it begins with Amanda Pepper, the protagonist, whining about her day and the upcoming visit of her future in-laws and her parents and blah, blah, blah.
She whined a lot. But, then the story got interesting and the mystery absorbing--all about what happens to teenagers can stay with them the rest of their lives. I'd read her again.
She whined a lot. But, then the story got interesting and the mystery absorbing--all about what happens to teenagers can stay with them the rest of their lives. I'd read her again.
July 18, 2013
an Amanda Pepper mystery. As her class studies The Lord of the Flies, Amanda discovers who would murder because of a slight in high school.
"The cause was worthy. The funds raised tonight and at other events would build and maintain a battered-woman's shelter and counseling for its inhabitants. I not-so-secretly believed everybody would be better off if we each wrote a check, stayed, home, and read a good book, but for reasons I cannot fathom. I am not the boss of the world."
"The cause was worthy. The funds raised tonight and at other events would build and maintain a battered-woman's shelter and counseling for its inhabitants. I not-so-secretly believed everybody would be better off if we each wrote a check, stayed, home, and read a good book, but for reasons I cannot fathom. I am not the boss of the world."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2014
Amanda Pepper teacher and part time PI. She gets involved with a woman who wants a research on her future daighter in law. This does golive Amanda some angst as her future in laws are about to arrive for her first meeting. While Amanda does research - the woman dies. There are several scenarios of her death but Amanda has a feeling it wasnt natural. It is a good book with the in laws as comic relief but killer was for me obvious.
Read
November 30, 2012Another Amanda Pepper mystery that I picked up while waiting to meet Mrs. B. and Boss Lady at the library. The mystery and the humour are as I’ve described them before, but I forgot to notice the real insights into the job vocation of teaching.
Read
November 20, 2012i always like this series set in philly, but read the books kind of randomly. this has the extra backdrop of consideration of inlaws. I think the evildoer is pretty obvious early on, but still read it all.
October 2, 2013
i enjoyed the book. I have read most of the books in the series. the mystery was good & I always like the main characters & what is happening next. meeting the future in laws was fun!! enjoyable read!
October 7, 2013
Very entertaining entry in the series. Nice to have Amanda Pepper's romantic angst settled. I appreciated her insights into teaching teens, and really like the juxtaposition of the story line, a subplot, and Lord of the Flies. Well done.
April 17, 2016
Fast read, good mystery. Different setting. McKenzie is no longer a cop, but a PhD student. He and Amanda are now part-time partners as P.I.s. Took me awhile to warm up to this change, but it worked for me.
January 13, 2008
This is a fun series to read. Likeable characters. For some reason, I've always like C.K., even though he doesn't appear all that much.
August 27, 2009
Amanda Pepper #11
September 5, 2011
A formula (Amanda Pepper) mystery - fun to read.
Read
March 6, 2014great
December 9, 2013
The writing is literate, and the puzzle keeps you guessing.Robers is doing a lot of the right things, but this did lose its charm for me in the middle, where I thought it sagged a bit.
February 6, 2015
Breaks absolutely no new ground and the mystery is slight, but I like Gillian Roberts's writing. She captures the absurdity of her characters really well, and Amanda Pepper is such a real creation.
April 5, 2015
Mystery plot is weak, but I love the depiction of teaching.
July 9, 2016
I have read other books by this author and was disappointed by the slow, really uninteresting pace and the characters were some sort of Nancy Drew wanna be's.
October 17, 2019
I think this novel was my favorite in the series about Amanda Pepper. :)
March 24, 2017
Did not finish. Wasn't interested.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews