Bubbles All the Way by Sarah Strohmeyer

Deirdre Shatsky is the kind of woman that other women love to hate....or at least she was that kind of woman. Right now Deirdre is laid out at the local morgue. The verdict - homicide by hair product.

When journalist Bubbles Yablonsky's best friend - and owner of the The House of Beauty hair salon - Sandy, is accused of murdering Pennsylvania's biggest bragger, Bubbles is determined to prove her innocence. But this isn't going to be a simple case of sleuthing and solving.

Whilst trying to clear Sandy's name, Bubbles must track down the mysterious 'Marguerite', defend her job from an annoying fresh-faced college graduate, re-marry her slimy, blackmailing, son of a gun ex-husband and avoid the psycho Santa Clause with the sniper rifle. And as if that wasn't enough, just who the hell is that glamorous actress hanging off the arm of HER, seriously sexy, Steve Stiletto?

Ballsy, brilliant and bursting with wise-ass humour, Bubbles All the Way is the fabulous new mystery from Agatha Award-winning Sarah Strohmeyer.

This is the sixth instalment in the Bubbles Yablonsky series, following on from Bubbles Betrothed, but it is the first time that I have actually read one of these books - I listened to all the other books on audiobook.

When I was actually reading the book, I very much enjoyed it - until the ending, but I will come back to that. The story was fast paced, funny and not simply the same story rehashed from previous books, but as I started thinking about things I realised that not everything was as rosy as it seemed. It was only after I closed the book that I wondered about a few things - for example a character that had been introduced, and had quite a lot of page time, and yet her character didn't really form any part of the solution to the mystery. There were other things that were in the book that, only when I looked back on it, I was left wondering why on earth was that in there! And that is before we start talking about some of the things like the fact that Bubbles was supposed to be remarrying her slimy ex husband Dan the Man, and numerous other things.

And about that ending! Having read all the books in the series, there are a few things that we know. Bubbles is a hairdresser turned journalist of Lithuanian stock, and sexy Steve Stiletto is a photo journalist for Reuters. In the last few pages of this book, we end up with a very strange ending, when the author attempts to convince us that what we have always thought, is actually not at all how things were, with the bizarrest plot twist - you couldn't actually imagine it yourself I think. I would imagine what was being attempted was to be able to take the series in a new direction, but to be honest it came so far out of left field, I was flabbergasted! So, if there is a new Bubbles book will I read it? Probably, but it will be a degree of scepticism!

So how do you rate a book that you really enjoyed reading, but when you actually thought about, realised that it had plot holes all through it, and then the strange ending! Well, until the ending I was going to give this the best grade of all the Bubbles book I have read, but I did have to deduct at least half a grade for the ending, so I decided on a rating of 4/5. Now that I have given it some more thought I am tempted to further downgrade, but I could second guess nearly every grading I give, so I will leave it as it is. Besides, even though it doesn't necessarily sound like it from this post, I did enjoy it, at least while I was reading it!