| E.J. Pugh returns for her second murder mystery, in which her family is threatened by an obsessive stalker. First, E.J.'s five-year-old daughter Megan eats a Hershey's Kiss laced with glass found in their backyard, and the new family living in the murdered Lester family's house are far from normal: Aurthur and Ginger McLemore, and their young son Connor are a 'Stepford' kind of family; their teenage son Brad is the opposite, rebelling in both appearance and behavior.
Noticing her jewelry and lingerie have been disturbed after having Brad babysit and catching Brad window-peeping, E.J. thinks he may have planted the glass-laced choclate in her back yard. Her suspicions are laid to rest when she finds Brad McLemore's nude strangled body in the back seat of her station wagon. The local sheriff thinks E.J. must have done it because of the multiple complaints she lodged about Brad, and the fact that he was strangled with E.J.'s garden hose. Soon, more attacks occur. The Pugh's backyard is firebombed, nasty personal ads are put in the newspaper in E.J.'s name, E.J.'s computer is flooded with vulgarities, and somehow Willis Pugh's new business partner, Doug Kingsley, thinks E.J. is a loose woman and hot for him. Who wants E.J. out of the picture? Why are they crazy enough to want to sully her reputation and kill her at the same time? | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - very humorous Time/era of story: Kind of investigator Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book descript. of violence and chases - 0 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 30 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Main Character Gender - Female Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Female Age: - 20's-30's Profession/status: Eccentric: Yes Motive of antagonist - jealousy Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Setting United States Yes The US: - Texas Small town? Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment Unusual forms of death - asphyxiation Unusual form of death? Yes Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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