Almost True Confessions: Closet Sleuth Spills All by Jane O'Connor

Get ready for some edgy chick lit!

Synopsis of Almost True Confessions: Closet Sleuth Spills All by Jane O'Connor: This comic mystery set in the elite zip codes of Manhattan will leave you breathless . . . literally.    What could be more fun for a freelance copy editor than working on a juicy tell-all about one of Manhattan's most enigmatic society doyennes? But when Miranda "Rannie" Bookman arrives at Ret Sullivan's tony Upper East Side apartment, she finds more than the final draft of the reclusive author's manuscript waiting for her—there's also the half-naked body of Ret herself, tied to her bed and strangled with an Hermès scarf.    Was this merely a case, as the police believe, of rough sex that got a little too rough? Or was Ret murdered because someone wanted to make absolutely sure she didn't meet her deadline? Once again, Rannie must prove that her mind is just as sharp as her Col-Erase blue pencils—or risk getting rubbed out too.

My two cents

Miranda "Rannie" (pronounced like Annie) Bookman is a copyeditor (yes, sounds cheesy) who has a talent for sleuthing. She is now free-lancing after having been let go by Simon and Schuster after the horrible incident of a botched up cover of the collector's edition of the Nancy Drew classic The Secret of the Old Clock (hey, it was missing the "L" in Clock, someone's head had to roll!).    While hot on the trail of another free-lance job for a top secret biography of a very famous person, she again finds herself in the thick of another murder(s)-mystery. Set in the high-end Manhattan district, with lots of insider detail on the publishing industry, this murder mystery was just begging to be solved by Rannie!   ***

I didn't quite expect this chick lit be quite so adult and smart! It's a fun fast read which features a very feisty middle-aged heroine, someone hard not to like. I think Rannie is a wonderful character whose home life, romance life, and professional life will likely click with a lot of women readers out there.  There's a bit of family drama (ex-hubby, teenage son, and an annoying mother), some romance with an ex-alcoholic cop (with a few steamy scenes, and then some). All so nicely done -- just enough reality that makes Rannie oh-so-relatable.    You know how I love my mysteries to be ... well, a good mystery. I enjoyed all the dirt, including high profiles names, that slowly surfaced with the writing of the biography. I was intrigued by Ret Sullivan's backstory of a troubled past and her less-than-desired enemies because of her poison pen, and moreso the details of her unusual even macabre murder. When you add in the many references to art, saints, and religion ... how the mystery played out floored me!   If this seems like a bit much, it's not. O'Connor has a wonderful levity in her writing, and Rannie's constant grammar correcting provide comic relief.   While this is the second in the series, I had no trouble getting into this! Thoroughly enjoyable!   Verdict: Fun, funny, fluffy, naughty, suspenseful mystery solving with an edge by the inimitable, feisty Rannie Bookman, copy-editor extraordinaire. This is a nod to the publishing industry, so a sleuth who wields a copy-editing pen ... it's a whole new genre of grammar-loving mystery solving, with an edge! 

About Jane O’Connor

Jane O’Connor, an editor at a major New York publishing house, has written more than thirty books for children, including the New York Times bestselling Fancy Nancy books. She is also the author of the adult mystery, Dangerous Admissions.

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I received an Uncorrected Proof of this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Book Depository

Paperback: 336 pages 

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Original edition (October 1, 2013)