Review: Not Your Average Rich Girl - at all!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2013
Sapphire Dubois is not the typical Beverley Hills girl, but to all eyes she appears to be. She surrounds herself with people to fill her life and give her the look of the snobby, rich bitch. She detests having to date a douchebag, attending charity galas, going the the country club, seeing her mother's infidelity and wearing $400 pajamas....OK, maybe not that last one.It's all a persona, because underneath it all Sapphire is an independent criminal detective. She operates on her own, does her research and leaves the bad guy (or girl, she doesn't discriminate) in a bind and masks her voice as she calls the local police. She has solved six cases in the last two years that she's been fighting crime, and semi-regularly visiting and confiding her side-work in a priest, Father O'Riley, at a Catholic church in San Diego.Sapphire's snobby friend, Chrissy, drags her to this charity event where she runs into newly promoted and transferred Detective Aston Ridder. He's got a bum leg and got a demotion via promotion via transfer from downtown LA to picture-perfect Beverly Hills. He does his usual - takes Sapphire home, sleeps with her and then throws her out. Only, she gets the last laugh...All the while, Sapphire keeps getting the feeling that someone is watching her - and then she knows for sure when a personal memento is stolen from her vehicle - parked right in front of the BHPD. And whoever it is wants Sapphire to pay - in blood.Mystery Murder Man has Sapphire stumped, and he's also sending her pieces of a missing girl. Sapphire's onto Aston that he's following/stalking her. It's not clear to Detective Ridder, or even Sapphire, why Mystery Murder Man is sending Sapphire appendages of a certain middle-class girl, Shelly...until she shakes Aston, hotrods to San Diego, breaks into the McCormick house and discovers a brief entry in Shelly's diary mentioning one Father O'Riley....She's also seeing her trainer show some feelings for her. She gets dumped by her boyfriend and she lashes out at Chrissy. Meanwhile, Aston's having to fend off Sapphire's mother, Vivienne, who uses men like tissues behind her elderly, disabled, nearly-vegetable husband that she overtly neglects. Talk about a viper! On top of it all, her friend and housekeeper Julia is engaged - which really shows the double sides of Sapphire.For explicitly stating all she did in the beginning of the book about wanting to be different than all the other Beverly Hills rich women, she sure is acting like one of them with Julia. It's strange to see such  jealously from a female character in this way, and especially cruel comments made directly to the reader about Julia's choice...and then she blows up on him, insisting he's the accomplice the first time she meets him! Needless to say, Sapphire is so bent on catching this serial killer that she's not firing on all cylinders and is itching to capture him. Rushing leads to sloppiness.The Mystery Murder Man is indeed only one person - and someone Sapphire knows! But the least-likely person she would suspect....The book has a few light twists at the ending, but Sapphire showed some character development and is able to let Julia go, peacefully. She also confronts her mother about a question that's been burning in her heart for her entire life - which was quite a surprise, as it never really came up at any time during the novel. Things are left unresolved between Sapphire and Aston, especially after her big announcement...and another crazy is on the loose - and he's looking for Sapphire!