Cheating at Solitaire (Gregor Demarkian Series #23) » (Reprint)

Jane Haddam is the author of numerous novels, most recently Glass Houses. Her work has been a finalist for both the Anthony and Edgar award. She lives in Litchfield County.

“A stellar whodunit.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The small, exclusive Massachusetts island of Margaret’s Harbor gets its fifteen minutes of fame when aging teen stars Arrow Normand and Marcey Mandret pay a visit to local celebrity heiress, Kendra Rhode. The girls’ drunken, disorderly behavior is being eaten up by the press…until an even bigger media storm erupts.

“Cheating at Solitaire has a sharply satirical edge as it takes on the cult of celebrity.”—Boston Globe

During a blizzard, Arrrow finds herself staggering around town, covered in blood and incoherently drunk. Meanwhile, her actor-boyfriend has been found shot dead in the front seat of a crashed truck. Now Arrow is cast as the only suspect in the crime—and she can’t remember a thing about the night in question.

“A sly…indictment of the cult of celebrity. Read this and liberate yourself from Page Six and TMZ.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Enter former F.B.I. agent Gregor Demarkian, who’s flown in from Philadelphia to review the charges against Arrow. What he finds is a case with little evidence, an insatiable paparazzi, and a mare’s nest of motives in what may be the most confusing, twisted role of Demarkian’s lifetime.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Haddam's stellar 22nd Gregor Demarkian whodunit (after 2007's Glass Houses), Demarkian is finally about to marry his longtime significant other, Bennis Hannaford. When the extensive wedding preparations take their toll, the detective welcomes the chance to leave his native Philadelphia and investigate a high-profile crime on the Martha's Vineyard-like island of Margaret's Harbor, where Arrow Normand, a Britney Spears-like pop icon, and her current boyfriend, Mark Anderman, had been filming a movie. During a raging nor'easter, Anderman was shot to death and Normand later arrested as the prime suspect. Plunged into the world of superficial celebrities, the traditional Demarkian struggles to identify the motive behind the murder as well as solve the bizarre mutilation of a local photojournalist and yet another killing. Haddam provides a completely fair and logical solution, even if it's not her twistiest, and to her credit, she examines the shallow lives of Normand and her crowd with some sympathy. (Mar.)