Personal Effects — Marissa Piesman

Being single in New York is fabulous, when the alternative is being dead...

Meeting men through the personals in 1990s New York is playing romantic Russian roulette, as Nina Fischman's oldest friend, Susan, discovered--too late. As for Nina, she had officially benched herself from the dating game as of Labor Day...

But here it is, only October, and the harried, over-worked Housing Court attorney is being coaxed out of social retirement by Detective James Williams, the unexpectedly attractive officer in charge of the case. He must be a hypnotist as well, because Nina finds herself set up as singles bait to snare Susan's murderer. The catch--besides the probability of violent death at the hands of a psychopath--is that Susan was an avid hiker, so Nina has to take to the great outdoors. An unnatural act, in Nina's opinion. After all, if God meant us to walk, why did She make taxis?