However, nothing is as it seems in the glamorous world of Eagle Crest. A beautiful young actress mysteriously died on the set all those years ago, and the reunion special is dredging up a lot of memories. Was Brittany Keegan’s death really an accident or did someone help her out of that third story window?

Having read one previous entry in Pence’s long-running series, I had some idea what I was getting to when I started this 11th entry; unfortunately my opinion hasn’t changed from that first reading experience. Angie is still a lead character with more problems than positive attributes. More often than not, she comes off as flighty and nosy, as opposed to charming and inquisitive. She seems to flit from one idea to another without any solid anchor. For example, while she is a chef, she gets the impression over the course of the story that she may want to try acting. However, not just run of the mill acting, but maybe landing a part in the director’s upcoming musical project – even though her only acting experience is from her school days. Puhleeze.

She’s also not much of a sleuth. Angie’s brand of ferreting out clues is to ask pointed, nosy questions of the suspects and wait for events to unfold around her. When she decides to be sneaky and look for clues, she comes off more too stupid to live than anything else – especially when her assumptions are so wrong they’re laughable.

However, if one can ignore Angie (which is easy to do since Pence writes in third person), this is a quick, often enjoyable story. For one thing, Angie’s fiancé, homicide inspector Paavo Smith is still as dreamy as ever. He’s charming, smart, and loving. The only thing tarnishing his image is that he apparently sees something in Angie – which I never could quite come to understand.

Also, the whole premise of the mystery is a lot of fun. As someone who was literally addicted to Dallas in the late 1980s, the primetime soap opera backdrop was a big guilty pleasure. The soap characters are suitably campy, and the actors that portray them full of dysfunction. I couldn’t help thinking how much fun Pence must have had researching this book. Visions of junk food and Dynasty reruns danced through my head.

Fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy this entry. Angie is pretty much the same as always, so for readers who like her character Two Cooks A – Killing promises more the same. Newcomers interested in giving this series a shot can easily start here, as Pence’s writing style doesn’t require a lot of inside knowledge of the series. However, the fact remains that Angie Amalfi is little more than a teenage girl playing dress-up in designer duds. If she actually ever grows up, and develops some semblance of maturity, this series could be a major contender for an even wider fan base.

--Wendy Crutcher