Charley Fairfax - heiress, theatrical producer, newlywed - has every intention of living happily ever after with her tall, dark, and sarcastic husband Jack. The only mysteries she faces are which play to choose for next season and how to decorate her dining room. But when Jack is hired to investigate a suspicious death at a San Francisco software company, it quickly becomes clear that high-tech has some low-life elements. The only way Charley knows how to help Jack involves doing something no-body thought she would ever do. Charley needs to get a job. It might be a problem that Charley and her band of irregulars from the repertory theater learned everything they know about the workplace from a production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, but that doesn't stop them from going undercover to find a killer. And even though she's only had one day's training in corporate double-speak, Charley isn't worried. Faking it has always been her strong suit. Charley and Jack are starting to get the hang of this marriage thing. If only people would stop talking about babies, introducing them to decorators, and trying to kill them, they might even get to take a honeymoon.
Description:
Charley Fairfax - heiress, theatrical producer, newlywed - has every intention of living happily ever after with her tall, dark, and sarcastic husband Jack. The only mysteries she faces are which play to choose for next season and how to decorate her dining room. But when Jack is hired to investigate a suspicious death at a San Francisco software company, it quickly becomes clear that high-tech has some low-life elements. The only way Charley knows how to help Jack involves doing something no-body thought she would ever do. Charley needs to get a job. It might be a problem that Charley and her band of irregulars from the repertory theater learned everything they know about the workplace from a production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, but that doesn't stop them from going undercover to find a killer. And even though she's only had one day's training in corporate double-speak, Charley isn't worried. Faking it has always been her strong suit. Charley and Jack are starting to get the hang of this marriage thing. If only people would stop talking about babies, introducing them to decorators, and trying to kill them, they might even get to take a honeymoon.
**
From Publishers Weekly
A charming setting, not-so-serious tension and a cozy clique of appealing characters lift Dumas's second mystery starring heiress Charley Fairfax, who heads a nonprofit San Francisco theater company. Charley's plans for the honeymoon with husband Jack that was interrupted in her first outing, Speak Now (2004), get put on hold when distraught CEO Morgan Stokes seeks Jack's computer security expertise to reveal a corporate saboteur. Stokes's fiancé's late-night death in a health club steam room, deemed accidental at first indicates foul play as well. Charley and Jack enlist her theater pals and his computer geek partner to infiltrate the high-tech company as fake consultants. Properly costumed and coiffed, Charley rehearses corporate nonspeak and laments having to rise early like her working-stiff cohorts. Meanwhile, the motley group rehashes their findings almost nightly, while consuming a variety of tempting comestibles and plenty of creative cocktails. This fun romp covers it all—car chases, shootings, eccentric-uncles-turned-amateur-playwrights and end-of-the-world computer viruses. (May)
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Review
Praise for Speak Now
""Short-listed for Britain's 2003 Debut Dagger Award, Dumas's sparkling debut should appeal to both cozy and chick-lit fans.""
--Publishers Weekly