Revenge of the Cootie Girls: A Robin Hudson Mystery - Softcover

The knockabout title, a throwback to Sharyn McCrumb's salad days, is the best thing about All News Network producer Robin Hudson's third adventure, a Girls' Night Out gone mad. Back in the Big Apple for Halloween, Robin heads out for an evening of barhopping, dress-up, backchat, and female bonding with her old buddies Tamayo, the clown producer; Claire, the got-it-all anchor; Sally, the bald witch; and Kathy, Robin's dewy-eyed new intern. When Kathy doesn't show up at their rendezvous but instead phones on the cellular to say that she's hiding in some guy's closet, Robin smells a rat--but she can't imagine how her pinball odyssey among Manhattan's nightspots will send her back to memories of (1) her high-school days in Ferrous, Minnesota, when she and Julie Goomey, dubbed the cootie girls by class style-setters Mary MacCosham and Sis Fanning, fought back to semipopularity; and (2) her first weeks in New York, when she fell in love with the city while unwittingly getting involved in a mob hit gone wrong. The zany cast provides scattered laughs, but trying to follow the plot is about as worthwhile as watching the heavens for Skylab detritus. Not even Hayter (Nice Girls Finish Last, 1996, etc.) can pull off this mishmash of Bergson, Proust, and Leona Helmsley's New York. It's like listening to somebody else's dreams. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Smart-mouthed news reporter Robin Hudson is back in another utterly outrageous adventure. Robin and her friends--fun-filled Tamayo; bald, tattooed Sally; sensible Claire; and innocent Kathy--decide on a girls' night out for Halloween. Then Kathy calls to say she's trapped in a married man's closet. Robin and crew set off to rescue her, but first they must complete a strange scavenger hunt that triggers memories of Robin's growing-up years in Minnesota, when she and her best friend were ridiculed as class misfits ("cootie girls"). By the end of the evening, Robin and her pals have taken a trip down Memory Lane, found a dead body, broken up a money-laundering ring, and rescued Kathy from certain corruption. The plot is thoroughly silly, but readers who like something different will find Hayter's in-your-face style, frenzied pacing, and tasteless but wildly funny humor a refreshing change. Emily Melton