I'D RATHER BE IN PHILADELPHIA

A third adventure for warmhearted Philadelphia high-school teacher Amanda Pepper (Caught Dead in Philadelphia, Philly Stakes) starts innocently when Amanda—rummaging through used books brought to school for a charity sale—finds one with margin notes that seem to be a cry for help from a battered wife. After a few false starts, Amanda tracks down the victim—Lydia Teller—just in time to find the body of Lydia's husband Wynn, shot to death on their kitchen floor. Partner with Clifford Schmidt in TLC, a chain of tutoring franchises, Wynn—under a glossy, well-PR'd surface—was a wife-beater, bigamist, and lousy businessman. Lydia is arrested for the killing, but, meanwhile, an attempt on Amanda's life; the appearance of Wynn's furious real wife and grown children; angry threats from teacher-franchisee Neil Quigley—convinced the firm had cheated him—and other incidents make it obvious that a murderer is still at large. Amanda nails him in an overextended confrontation that verges on silly. Our heroine can be funny; her oddball romance with policeman Mackenzie has its charm; there are intriguing minor characters, but a steady flow of self-deprecating asides nears the cutesy and slows the pace here. Overall, then: a lighthearted but sometimes heavy- footed entertainment.