SKATING OVER THE LINE

A small-town girl who yearns to go back to Chicago is saddled with a reputation as a crime fighter.

Great news for Rebecca Robbins: There may be a buyer for her roller rink. Despite her loving relationship with her grandfather, an Elvis impersonator, and a hot romance with veterinarian Lionel Franklin, she still dreams of returning to the city. When a friend of her grandfather’s has his car stolen, Rebecca is enlisted to find it. But she’s thrown off her stride by the arrival of the super-salesman father who had walked out on her and her mother years before. Soon after Rebecca discovers the stolen car afire in a field with a dummy in the driver’s seat, her father’s car is stolen and burned, and this time the body at the wheel is a real one. Her high-school classmate, now a policeman, is vehemently against Rebecca’s investigations. In addition, she has her hands full dealing with her father, a newly hired roller-rink manager who’d rather be making movies, and Lionel, who wants to take their relationship further than Rebecca wants to go. The final insult comes when she and her father are harassed by some angry Spanish-speaking men, providing yet another puzzle for the intrepid sleuth to solve. Rebecca’s second (Skating Around the Law, 2010) features the Midwest’s laid-back answer to Stephanie Plum in another funny, spunky romp.