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(More customer reviews)"Extracurricular Activities" is Maggie Barbieri's follow-up to her well-received debut, "Murder 101." Dr. Alison Bergeron still teaches English literature in St. Thomas, a small Catholic college in the Bronx. The love of her life, "Detective Hot Pants," also known as Bobby Crawford, has yet to divorce his pretty and saintly wife, Christine, who is also the mother of their seventeen-year-old twin girls. Meanwhile, Alison's philandering ex-husband, Ray, is forever dropping by, and she is too polite to tell him to get lost. One evening, Alison comes home and finds a mutilated corpse propped up at her kitchen table. Now she really has her hands full, what with her professional responsibilities, her quandary about whether she should go out with her friend's gorgeous single brother, Jack McManus, and of course, her sleuthing. Alison has never been one to leave the detecting to the detectives.
Her investigation brings her into close contact with Bobby, which makes them both a bit uncomfortable. She is also forced to spend some not-so-quality time with several suspects, including the formidable mob boss Peter Miceli and his nasty wife, Gianna, who have intimidated her ever since their nineteen-year-old daughter was found dead in the trunk of Alison's car. Peter and Gianna keep stalking her and that leaves Alison more than a bit queasy. In addition, she is chagrined when her slutty neighbor, Terri, who had been one of Ray's lovers, suddenly decides to have a chat about her personal problems. Before all the plot elements are finally resolved, more bodies pile up and Alison finds herself in mortal danger.
"Extracurricular Activities" has a likeable and wise-cracking heroine and cute dialogue laced with amusing one-liners. The secondary characters include Alison's buddy, Father Kevin McManus, a gossipy priest, Terri's golden retriever, Trixie, who always greets Alison with unbounded doggy affection, sultry Max Rayfield, Alison's soon-to-be married best friend, and Carmen Montoya, a tough, smart, and sexy cop who, although married, unabashedly flirts with Crawford. It is too bad that the story is so far-fetched. The police seem to be sleeping at the wheel while Maggie does most of the dirty work and as the plot unfolds, it becomes more and more preposterous. In addition, Barbieri makes the jarring decision to switch from Alison's first person point of view to the third person and then back again to the first person. The book's redeeming features are its lighthearted humor and Barbieri's deft handling of Alison's volatile love life. Although it does not earn the highest marks, "Extracurricular Activities" is a satisfying enough chick-lit mystery that will appeal to fans of escapist fare.
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