The Polka Dot Nude

by Joan Smith

DANGER. DECEIT. AND DEATH...

For biographer Audrey Dane, it was the chance of a lifetime. The legendary Hollywood star, Rosalie Hart, had selected Audrey personally to write the memoirs of her dazzling life and career. A visit to the great lady's rambling country mansion and then off to a secluded resort to complete the book--it was too good to be true ...

...for something, or someone, lurked in the shadows. Suddenly, the actress's magnificent portrait, The Polka Dot Nude, was stolen...Audrey's notes were missing...

203 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1989

About the author

Joan Smith is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the Ontario College of Education. She has taught French and English in high school and English in college. When she began writing, her interest in Jane Austen and Lord Byron led to her first choice of genre, the Regency, which she especially liked for its wit and humor.
Her favorite travel destination is England, where she researches her books. Her hobbies are gardening, painting, sculpture and reading. She is married and has three children. A prolific writer, she is currently working on Regencies and various mysteries at her home in Georgetown, Ontario.
She is also known as Jennie Gallant

Reviews

[Peggy Haufle · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit of romance and mystery. Audrey has a small cottage rented to work on the biography of film star Rosalie Hart. A neighboring cabin has a man whose reason for being there is suspect. Is he an English teacher, a hack trying to write his own biography of Rosalie Hart, a writer of slut? Humorous situations weave in and out.

[Bev]

I wound up skimming a great deal of this--just so I could have a good idea of the plot. Each time I "came in for a landing" (so to speak) I found that not much had changed. I could not give this one a rating--since I did not read the entire book.

Full review/DNF explanation on my blog: My Reader's Block.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea who Joan Smith is, if there is more than one Joan Smith (one wrote mysteris, another wrote Regency romances that were sometimes mysteries). I enjoyed her books either way.