Mother Finds a Body - (Femmes Fatales) by Gypsy Rose Lee (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This encore performance by the author of The G-String Murders is simply "one of the greatest mysteries ever written" (Philadelphia Daily News).

It's supposed to be a quiet honeymoon getaway for celebrated stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and Biff Brannigan, ex-comic and ex-Casanova of the Burly Q circuit, settled as they are in a cozy trailer built for two. If you don't count Gypsy's overbearing mother, a monkey act, and Gee Gee, a.k.a. the Platinum Panic. Not to mention the best man found shot to death in the bathtub. Strippers are used to ballyhoo, but this time it's murder.

Leave it to Gypsy and her latest scandal to draw a crowd: Biff's burnt-out ex-flame, a sleazy dive owner with a Ziegfeld complex, a bus-and-truck circus troupe, and a local Texas sheriff randy for celebrities. But when another corpse turns up with a knife in his back, Gypsy fears that some rube is dead set on pulling the curtain on her bump and grind. She's been in the biz long enough to know this ghastly mess is just a tease of things to come.

Review Quotes

"One of the greatest mysteries ever written." --The Philadelphia Daily News

"Our most famous burlesque queen may raise the temperature with a strip tease, but she chills the blood when she goes into her detective routine." --The Boston Post

About the Author

Gypsy Rose Lee (1911-1970) was born Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, and became the most famous burlesque actor and striptease artist of her day, renowned as much for her witty repartee on stage as for removing her clothes. First performing with her sister on the vaudeville circuit and later in striptease routines, Rose soon landed star billing in a top New York burlesque theater, and following her wild success there, became a popular fixture in Broadway theaters. In 1937 she moved to Hollywood. She went on to appear in twelve films and have her own television show. Rose's writing career included contributing regularly to The New Yorker, reporting on the New York social scene, and publishing two novels. She also wrote her memoir Gypsy (1957), which later became the inspiration for the hugely popular Broadway musical, Gypsy: A Musical Fable and the 1962 film version of the play.