The Celebutantes: On the Avenue
Grade 7 Up—The wealthy and beautiful 15-year-old Hamilton triplets—impetuous Lexington, pragmatic Park, and mini-mogul Madison—have it all and Manhattan is their playground. At a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the sisters have a troublesome encounter with a zealous paparazzo that leads them to discover the dead body of a famous fashion magazine editor. When Lexington is implicated in the murder, the teens set out to solve the case themselves. Full of snobbery, cattiness, sexual encounters, and underage drinking, this book tries very hard to be like Cecily von Ziegesar's "Gossip Girl" series (Little, Brown) and Bennett Madison's "Lulu Dark" mysteries (Sleuth/Razorbill), but it has none of the wit and knowing sarcasm that make those books so entertaining. The mystery starts off well for these wannabe Nancy Drews but it is so drawn out that, by the end, readers will lose interest in whodunit and why. Because the story is written in alternating chapters about different characters, readers don't get to know the stereotypical sisters, their boyfriends, and their employees, but since they are all so unlikable and smug, no one is likely to care.—Anne Rouyer, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.