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Shock Point and other books by April Henry are available via the following vendors or your favorite local independent bookseller.
Independent Mystery Booksellers Association
home > books > heart-shaped box > overviewHEART-SHAPED BOX OVERVIEW
(HarperCollins, Feb 2001)
he inimitable Claire Montrose is back, and as delightful as ever, in this third installment in Agatha- and Anthony-nominee April Henry’s acclaimed mystery series.
Claire wasn’t part of the in-crowd at Minor High. In fact, she didn’t have many friends at all, spending most of her time outside of school toiling at Pietro’s Pizza. Yet when the invitation to her 20-year high-school reunion comes in the mail, she decides to go. After all, Claire is no longer the girl she was in high school, the one who was too smart, too tall, too skinny, and who looked a lot younger than she was. Now maybe all her old handicaps are actually to her advantage. At thirty-seven, it’s good to be smart, tall, thin and look younger than you actually are. Claire sets off to see old friends, old lovers and maybe even a few old enemies.
While checking into Ye Olde Pioneer Village for the weekend festivities, Claire receives a mysterious package containing a heart-shaped box. Inside is a high school yearbook picture of Claire. Is it a secret admirer? Before Claire figures out who might have sent it, another box turns up—in the limp hand of Cindy Sanchez, the former head cheerleader, who is found strangled in the parking lot. Before the night is over, five more women reveal they, too, have received heart-shaped boxes. Is there a killer on the loose who will claim them all before the reunion is over? Was Cindy’s murder simply a mugging gone bad? Or was Cindy, who had more lovers—and more enemies—than anyone else in school, the only one marked for murder?
In a tale combining equal parts suspense and humor, Claire and the Minor High Class of ’79 suffer a reunion nightmare they won’t soon forget. While secrets are revealed as the reunited class suspiciously examines its ranks, Claire struggles to stop a killer before the killer stops her.
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