The only thing worse than going to your twenty-fifth high school reunion is going a pathetic failure. I’m a stay at home cat mom, who’s sixty pounds overweight, and I just ate a can of Duncan Hines chocolate frosting for breakfast. I haven’t been out of the house since my late husband’s funeral a few months ago so I haven’t had to put on pants in a really long time. That’ll teach the UPS driver to require a signature. Fortunately, my black smoke Persian Figaro enjoys our life on the sectional sofa living on microwave pot pies and raspberry Zingers. Who needs friends when you have Cupcake Wars?

Apparently, Sawyer does. She’s been my best friend since grade school – no offence Fig. Sawyer didn’t run for her life to escape beach Hell like I did. She stayed in Cape May and got married and divorced. Of course, she’s gorgeous and has a body to die for so living in a resort town that worships the bikini suits her.

She called me a little while ago complaining about these cheerleaders who made our lives miserable all through high school. Ah yeah, Sawyer – I know. That’s why my favorite food group is crème filling. I’m trying to forget. Sawyer has the flagrant boldness that comes from being a size five, so she wants to go to the reunion and face off against the bullies. I’m like, fine. Have fun with that. You do you. Only her misery wants my company and she’s not afraid to use the BFF card.

That’s why I’m currently wired on espresso and throwing t-shirts and slim fast bars into a suitcase. I have a four-hour road trip to the Jersey shore with a howling cat ahead of me. A very old, extremely cantankerous, and possibly senile Great Aunt Ginny waiting to chew me out for not coming home sooner. And an 80’s themed reunion to get in, get out, and get over as quick as possible. And. . . I still need to find pants.

This is gonna be a disaster. But at least I won’t run into the one that got away.

You can read more about Poppy in Class Reunions Are Murder, the first book in the NEW “Poppy McAllister” mystery series, released January 30, 2018.

For fortysomething Poppy McAllister, taking a stroll down memory lane in Cape May, New Jersey, isn’t just awkward—it’s deadly.

Newly widowed and stuck in a middle-aged funk, Poppy has been running on cookies, infomercials, and one-sided chats with her cat for months. There’s no way on earth she’s attending her twenty-five-year class reunion—especially after receiving a very bizarre letter from Barbie, the popular cheerleader who taunted her all through high school. At least, not until Poppy’s best friend practically drags her to the event . . .

Using the dreaded homecoming as an excuse to visit her eccentric Aunt Ginny, Poppy vows to leave Cape May with pride and Spanx intact. Too bad Barbie is still the queen of mean at the reunion. And worse, that her dead body is lying right in front of Poppy’s old locker. Singled out as the killer, it’s up to Poppy to confront her past and clear her name. But between protecting her aunt from disaster and tackling a gluten-free diet, can Poppy crack the case before she’s voted “Most Likely to Die” by the murderer?

Includes Seven Recipes from Poppy’s Kitchen!

Buy Link

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Meet the author
Libby Klein graduated Lower Cape May Regional High School sometime in the ’80s. Her classes revolved mostly around the culinary sciences and theater, with the occasional nap in Chemistry. A few years ago, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that forced her to remove gluten from her kitchen and adopt a Paleo Diet. Now her life revolves around coffee and bacon. When she’s not feeling sorry for herself that she can’t eat bread, she writes from her Northern Virginia office while trying to keep her cat Figaro off her keyboard. Most of her hobbies revolve around eating, and travel, and eating while travelling.

All comments are welcomed.