Gillian Roberts's Philadelphia-based Amanda Pepper mysteries have won her a faithful readership and wide critical acclaim. The San Francisco Chronicle has called Amanda "engaging and entertaining." And The Philadelphia Inquirer praises the schoolteacher-heroine who delivers her lines "with self-deprecating savagery and humor."There is good reason to cheer again. Amanda Pepper, the resilient, resourceful English teacher at Philly Prep, is back - once more moonlighting as an amateur sleuth.Amanda has volunteered to sort books for a school fund-raiser, where she encounters a second-hand volume from an unknown donor - a book for and about battered women. As Amanda peruses the book, she realizes that it contains a special and frightening message from its original owner. Passages describing violent physical and emotional abuse are underlined, with additional notes scribbled in the margins corroborating the details: "I know he will kill me. He says so. I believe him. He will kill me soon."As far as Amanda is concerned, this cry for help cannot be ignored. Her search for the desperate victim leads from the corridors of Philly Prep to the cobblestone streets of Society Hill, and the smooth avenues of the upscale Main Line. Along the way Amanda learns a startling lesson about deliberate brutality - and its unpredictable and cold-blooded consequences. Read Less