Murder For Love

bobbie ann mason

Girl detectives are supposed to discover secrets, not harbor them. No one should know this better than Nancy Drew, whose attic adventures and crumbling castle conundrums were more than a match for any swarthy villain. But what happens when her universe-the River Heights that exists beyond the carefully controlled pages of the series so beloved by generations of women-begins to fray a bit about the edges? Clearly, Nancy 's long-proven methods for vanquishing the forces of evil aren't of much use when it comes to protecting her against change and decay and, even worse, revisionism.

Who is Draco S. Wren? And why does he seem so eerily familiar? In this affectionate parody by acclaimed novelist and short-story writer Bobbie Ann Mason, whose own first published book was a history of America's teenage girl detectives titled The Girl Sleuths, Nancy Drew is an altogether willing captive of her own myth. But even Nancy eventually must acknowledge that crimes of the heart don't make for open-and-shut cases.

Once named by Elmore Leonard as his favorite writer, Bobbie Ann Mason has won numerous literary prizes for her insightful fiction about southern life, including the bestselling In Country.

– O. P.