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A Paige Turner Mystery #1
Murderers Prefer Blondes
A feisty young widow with Brenda Starr bravado and a fixation with following in Agatha Christie's footsteps, Paige wants to pen a memorable mystery. But first she must solve the murder of a 24-year-old beauty queen.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
553 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Matetsky
9 books35 followersFrom the author's website:
Amanda Matetsky was a magazine editor and a volunteer literacy tutor before becoming a fiction writer. Her first novel, The Perfect Body, was published by HarperCollins in 1997 and won the NJRW Golden Leaf Award for Best First Book.
Murderers Prefer Blondes, the first entry in Amanda’s popular Paige Turner mystery series, was published by Berkley Prime Crime in 2003 and was an IMBA bestseller. The second book in the series, Murder Is a Girl’s Best Friend (2004), also made the IMBA bestseller list. The third and fourth Paige Turner mysteries, How to Marry a Murderer (2005) and Murder on a Hot Tin Roof (2006), were released to rave reviews, as was the fifth and final novel in the series, Dial Me for Murder, which hit the bookstores in September 2008. Amanda is now working on a stand-alone novel, which she laughingly “categorizes” as a sexy romantic comedy mystery thriller. “I’m a confirmed genre writer,” she says, “but I can’t pick just one!”
Amanda was born in Georgia, and as a result of her father’s many professional promotions and relocations, lived in seven other states (Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, California, and New York) before reaching the age of sixteen. She graduated from Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York, and earned her BA degree in English at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
After college she moved to Taos, New Mexico, where she worked for the local newspaper, The Taos News, and developed a taste for salsa (the sauce and the music). One year later she returned to New York, took an apartment in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and began her career as a magazine editor.
While working at a large fan magazine publishing company, Amanda fell head over heels for her boss, Harry Matetsky. They eventually married, bought a house in a Long Island suburb, and continued working together in the magazine industry for twelve more years. The work was lucrative but not very satisfying, so they left the industry to pursue more personal interests. Harry is now a collector of old movie posters, original comic strip art, and comic books, while Amanda is living her lifelong dream of writing fiction. They reside in central New Jersey, with their two cats, Homer and Phoebe, in a house full of laughter and love and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Amanda Matetsky was a magazine editor and a volunteer literacy tutor before becoming a fiction writer. Her first novel, The Perfect Body, was published by HarperCollins in 1997 and won the NJRW Golden Leaf Award for Best First Book.
Murderers Prefer Blondes, the first entry in Amanda’s popular Paige Turner mystery series, was published by Berkley Prime Crime in 2003 and was an IMBA bestseller. The second book in the series, Murder Is a Girl’s Best Friend (2004), also made the IMBA bestseller list. The third and fourth Paige Turner mysteries, How to Marry a Murderer (2005) and Murder on a Hot Tin Roof (2006), were released to rave reviews, as was the fifth and final novel in the series, Dial Me for Murder, which hit the bookstores in September 2008. Amanda is now working on a stand-alone novel, which she laughingly “categorizes” as a sexy romantic comedy mystery thriller. “I’m a confirmed genre writer,” she says, “but I can’t pick just one!”
Amanda was born in Georgia, and as a result of her father’s many professional promotions and relocations, lived in seven other states (Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, California, and New York) before reaching the age of sixteen. She graduated from Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York, and earned her BA degree in English at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
After college she moved to Taos, New Mexico, where she worked for the local newspaper, The Taos News, and developed a taste for salsa (the sauce and the music). One year later she returned to New York, took an apartment in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and began her career as a magazine editor.
While working at a large fan magazine publishing company, Amanda fell head over heels for her boss, Harry Matetsky. They eventually married, bought a house in a Long Island suburb, and continued working together in the magazine industry for twelve more years. The work was lucrative but not very satisfying, so they left the industry to pursue more personal interests. Harry is now a collector of old movie posters, original comic strip art, and comic books, while Amanda is living her lifelong dream of writing fiction. They reside in central New Jersey, with their two cats, Homer and Phoebe, in a house full of laughter and love and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 5, 2013
The Good: Paige and her neighbor Abby are fun characters to read. There's some decent humor mixed in with a great 1950's setting. The author does a great job setting the mood and tone of the time for working women. A light, easy read.
The Bad: The mystery was sort of obvious once readers were introduced to the possible suspects. While I enjoyed the humorous tone, I actually found myself wishing things in the book were viewed a little more seriously. There was a flippant feeling that took away from the urgency of the mystery.
The Bad: The mystery was sort of obvious once readers were introduced to the possible suspects. While I enjoyed the humorous tone, I actually found myself wishing things in the book were viewed a little more seriously. There was a flippant feeling that took away from the urgency of the mystery.
December 30, 2019
This Paige Turner mystery is a real page turner! (sorry I couldn't resist) This book moved along at a good pace and we got a good introduction to the characters. I love how real Paige seems. At times there did seem to be a lot of other characters to try and keep track of but this was very well done. #readforkimberly
March 6, 2017
This was a eyebrow-raiser. It is amateur sleuth, but not cozy. It is more suspense and it's good suspense. Set in 1954, a time when women were fighting to get into the workplace and be of equal standing and pay.
It's full of beatniks, thugs, Mafia, working girls and those that would try to take advantage of them. Paige likes to think she's tough, full of moxie, and she does keep going even when there's someone leaving threatening notes and dead bodies in her path. Told in first-person, Paige describes herself fairly honestly, panic and crying jags and all. She will do what it takes to get her story and see it through. I loved the most that it wasn't only the who, but the why.
Again, it's amateur sleuth, but not a cozy. There's violence and heavy duty cussing.
Definitely recommend.
It's full of beatniks, thugs, Mafia, working girls and those that would try to take advantage of them. Paige likes to think she's tough, full of moxie, and she does keep going even when there's someone leaving threatening notes and dead bodies in her path. Told in first-person, Paige describes herself fairly honestly, panic and crying jags and all. She will do what it takes to get her story and see it through. I loved the most that it wasn't only the who, but the why.
Again, it's amateur sleuth, but not a cozy. There's violence and heavy duty cussing.
Definitely recommend.
March 2, 2016
This book is fun & quirky. My 2nd time reading it actually. I came across the 'Paige Turner' series again while just searching book titles and thought I'd start with the first one again since its been 10 years & I already had it. I'll definitely try more. The author writes a clever strong woman character 'detective' type during the 1950s - when women had "their place" in society - someone you root for; makes easy fun reads. Very entertaining!
June 20, 2018
This book took a long time to pull me in; I was more than half way before I became invested in the characters. Part of the problem was that there was time period or date specifically stated and because of the rampant misogyny, as well as her being widowed during the war it was hard to tell. The excessive smoking and working women put it closer the the 50s/60s than the 40s but it wasn't until Vietnam was specifically mentioned that I was able to more accurately date the book. Now, Paige was spunky and determined while also being fairly stereotypical for the mid/late 1900s. I was a little tired of the puns about her name and was glad when they stopped. The mystery was extremely murky, too many suspects and not enough evidence. All of the suspects were bad and it was hard to determine who to focus on. I was not surprised when it ended up being Fred Scott; he was terribly abusive. Nor was it surprising that little Ricky was the child of Babs and Freddy. I did like Dan, but he was even hard to read; was he flirting or not? I'm not sure if I will be reading anymore of this series... it took too long to get me invested in the story and characters to make me want to run right out and get the next one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2021
Murderers Prefer Blondes is the first in a humorous, historical cozy mystery. The story takes place in New York City in the year 1954. The title character and protagonist, Paige Turner, an editor for a detective/pulp fiction magazine, Daring Detective. She makes coffee, proofs typos in stories and does whatever her male colleagues what around the office. All she really wants is to publish her own mystery story. Until she finds a lead that will finally proved her boss that she's man enough to take on a story of her own. A model for the magazine has been murdered. And Paige gets a crazy idea to solve the case herself. With the help of her next door neighbor, Abby. It's a good story with lots of humor.
March 1, 2018
This is more like a 2 1/2 star review.
A friend found this book at a thrift shop and left it for me knowing that since the author lives in my county and I once lived in the Greenwich Village I must find the setting and style of interest. It is a quick read but the characters are cookie cutter, the plot simplistic and the mystery obvious. The tone of much of the book is flippant and details that I assume are supposed to be atmospheric are more like an information dump.. As a "cozy mystery" it does the job but merely adequately.
A friend found this book at a thrift shop and left it for me knowing that since the author lives in my county and I once lived in the Greenwich Village I must find the setting and style of interest. It is a quick read but the characters are cookie cutter, the plot simplistic and the mystery obvious. The tone of much of the book is flippant and details that I assume are supposed to be atmospheric are more like an information dump.. As a "cozy mystery" it does the job but merely adequately.
August 15, 2018
The second time I've read this. I enjoyed it again. I like the humour and light heartedness of the writing. I was looking for something that wasn't too heavy, too dark or too creepy, but with enough character to keep me entertained. I bought the other books in the series to read too.
April 21, 2021
This book is set in the 1950's. In their world all women are "dolls" and men can't make a cup of coffee for themselves. I'm afraid that got old very quickly in my mind! The book was well written and there were plenty of characters but I couldn't get over the male attitude.
July 2, 2017
I love this series and cried long and hard when it ended. I highly recommend.
November 13, 2019
A Paige Turner Mystery, easy reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2023
This book is actually great at first, I personally thought that this book will be a little bit different, but actual content didn’t disappoint.
October 3, 2016
I came across this author in a second hand bookshop I visited a couple of months ago. I bought two of the books in the series. I wish I had bought more.
I really enjoyed the mystery and the story. It takes place in the 1950's, when women weren't treated as equals, and were subjected to becoming wife, nurse, secretary or school teacher. This is why I liked Paige so much. She is a strong woman, who wanted to live outside the "norm" and be a writer for the magazine she worked at, but was stuck being the secretary/coffee maker/editor because life really sucked bad back then for women! So when Babs Comstock is killed, she takes it upon herself to solve who done it. I was cheering her on every step of the way!
The author did an excellent job at setting the tone for the 1950's. She obviously did a lot of research, because it showed in her descriptions.
Though the story was an easy read and I enjoyed it very much, the time period and how terrible women were treated as second class people drove me mad. I'm not sure I would had been able to hold my tongue in being talked down, called "doll", and every other degrading way woman were subjected too back then.
On the hunt for more of the books.
I really enjoyed the mystery and the story. It takes place in the 1950's, when women weren't treated as equals, and were subjected to becoming wife, nurse, secretary or school teacher. This is why I liked Paige so much. She is a strong woman, who wanted to live outside the "norm" and be a writer for the magazine she worked at, but was stuck being the secretary/coffee maker/editor because life really sucked bad back then for women! So when Babs Comstock is killed, she takes it upon herself to solve who done it. I was cheering her on every step of the way!
The author did an excellent job at setting the tone for the 1950's. She obviously did a lot of research, because it showed in her descriptions.
Though the story was an easy read and I enjoyed it very much, the time period and how terrible women were treated as second class people drove me mad. I'm not sure I would had been able to hold my tongue in being talked down, called "doll", and every other degrading way woman were subjected too back then.
On the hunt for more of the books.
May 18, 2012
A secretary/coffe maker/proofreader/friend Paige Turner gets the ride of her life in this book. Did i mention she is a wanna-be mystery writer? Add that to the / line up there, cause she is. Trying to find out her murdered a beautiful blonde, Paige gets the help of her best friend Abby to help her solve the case. She see's many handsome man, but can she trust them. One of them may be the killer. Avoiding handsome homicide detective Dan Street who warned her about putting her nose into business, Paige must make sure that a strangler is off the street before the strangler kills her dreams on being a writer, permanatly.
July 28, 2018
A young war widow in 1954 NYC has serious writing on her mind, but she's merely the secretary (who actually keeps the office running) at the male-dominated mystery magazine. She takes it upon herself to investigate the murder of a model she met briefly, hoping it will be her big break. Again, supporting characters, including a wacky neighbor and a tall, dark and handsome police detective keep the interaction stimulating, and the heroine's own gutsy encounters followed by knee-wobbling fainting spells will leave you laughing.
February 9, 2011
I really, really wanted to like this book. I liked the idea of the 50s setting. However, I spent the whole book annoyed by Paige. I kept reading hoping I would begin to like her, but I never did. It is hard to recommend a book without a winning lead character. I felt like the book never fulfilled its potential.
August 22, 2011
This must be a really simple mystery, because I don't usually know whodunit and today I figured this one out even with a cold in my head. The detective and her neighbor are good characters, though, and the author talks about some fairly serious social history with a sprightly manner that carried me along.
April 29, 2016
This book is set in 1954 and written in first person. Paige Turner wants to write a mystery novel but she is too busy working at Daring Detective magazine. She finds the case of a 24 year woman who was killed and goes looking for a story to write amd a case to solve that will make her career or put her life in danger. It is written like the person is taking to you.
July 6, 2009
It took a while to get into this book and you can't immediately guess who the murder is. That's only because the suspects are introduced pretty late. There are lots of silly 50's references. For $2, not a bad buy!
May 11, 2009
Another sequel to the Paige Turner books. I love this new series I am reading.
April 18, 2008
This was introduced to me by another group read from the same group. It has a nice feel to it, since it go back in time to the 1940s. I hope to read more of this series in the future.
July 21, 2008
Very cute cozy mystery set in the mid 1950s. I love Paige and her best friend Abby. A must read for cozy mystery lovers.
April 26, 2009
Not the most intriguing plot and the characters were flat.
Want to read
May 11, 2009Looks like it might be fun...
July 8, 2009
This is a new author for me and I enjoyed reading the first in her series. Definitely better than Diane Mott Davidson. I would put her in the same class as the flower shop and book shop mysteries.
October 22, 2009
cute, easy read.
February 21, 2011
Meh, it was fine.
October 2, 2011
I enjoyed the glimpse at the fifties woman. I will probably read sequels, if I find them at the local used bookstore, but won't actively seek them out. I did laugh outloud once ot twice.
May 9, 2013
feels kind of long... but mostly entertaining... sometimes the 50s references are really well done and other times they're super heavy-handed
August 31, 2013
Used it for research for my WIP. Loved the premise and time period.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews