Naked Once More

Elizabeth Peters
aka Barbara Mertz

Jacqueline Kirby is an author of romance novels. As her agent is retiring, he advises her that she might want to bid for the sequel to a popular novel by a deceased author. He recommends that she take on the agent responsible for the sequel's publishing. She does and is one of the five authors chosen to interview with the family.

The author had been declared dead from suicide after missing for seven years. As Jacqueline meets the people from the author's home and family, she begins to wonder what the true story is. As she begins an outline for her version of the sequel she begins asking questions and nosing around.

Jacqueline is a very flamboyant, self confident woman. She is an older, single woman, who became a writer after her children had grown. She has written her first two books tongue in cheek, but the reading audience does not realize it. She cherishes this possible chance of producing a serious work that will be an automatic best seller.

What fun and what a good mystery Naked Once More is! It is well set up and keeps the reader guessing until the very end. The reader is given enough clues to keep guessing about the murder, not enough to put together the complete story. I listened to this one on tape and once again though Barbara Rosenblat did a marvelous bringing Jacqueline to life.

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters