KILLER WASPS

KILLER WASPs by Amy Korman is a spunky new mystery/crime-lite series in the spirit of Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum) and Meg Cabot (Heather Wells) series.

Bryn Mawr is an idyllic haven for east coast WASPs—tennis tournaments and five thirty cocktails at the club are expected and revered, Lilly Pulitzer is practically a uniform, and no one discusses their own wealth or dwindling fortunes (just everyone else's). Not much happens in the Philly suburb; front page news is a dog show or a restaurant opening. That is, until antiques store owner Kristin Clark and her portly basset hound stumble upon the unconscious body of the new real estate developer, prone beneath the hydrangea bushes lining the driveway of one of Bryn Mawr's founding families. When the attempted murders of two high profile citizens occurs days later, the entire town is abuzz with intrigue in this winsome debut from former Philadelphia Magazine senior editor Amy Korman. KILLER WASPs unites a whodunit with Page 6 style as Kristin and her childhood best friends—Holly, a chicken nugget heiress; Joe, the only straight male interior decorator for 100 miles; and Bootsie, the Gazette's society columnist--team up to untangle the truth from the gossip before one of them becomes the next victim. While Holly spends her inheritance on Pucci and her new "divorce" house, Kristin is more accessible as a Gap outlet heroine. Her fumbling humor and vulnerability, mixed with the small-town charm of Gilmore Girls and the possibility of romance, place this amateur sleuthing adventure on the same shelf as Meg Cabot's Heather Wells series and some of the well-known Stephanies (Bond, McAfee, and you know the one). Planned sequels find the comedic crew wintering in Palm Beach and continuing their crime-busting antics as spring arrives once again. Amy Korman is a former senior editor and staff writer for Philadelphia Magazine, and author of Frommer's Guide to Philadelphia. She has written for Town & Country, House Beautiful, Men's Health, and Cosmopolitan. A native of Philadelphia's Main Line, she has written frequently about the enjoyable clash of old money and newly minted cash, profiling the heirs of Hope Montgomery Scott (who inspired "The Philadelphia Story") as well as society decorators, hairstylists, celebrity chefs, Neiman Marcus' top personal shoppers, and mob lawyers.