The Social-Climber's Handbook

Jong-Fast pokes twisted fun at New York City's elite in her trite follow-up to Normal Girl. It's the spring of 2008, and trader Dick Greenbaum and his wife, Daisy, have clawed their way to the highest levels of Upper East Side society: they've got a $12 million Park Avenue apartment, their daughters attend private schools, and Daisy volunteers at the best charities. But the financial collapse looms, and a few skeletons are rattling around in their walk-in closets. Daisy is prepared to remove any obstacles in their way%E2%80%94starting with Dick's "reputation-ruining" boss (poison) and his meddlesome ex-mistress (blunt force trauma). But when a pair of bloggers begin investigating Dick's company's financial dealings, they have no idea they'll have to confront the Upper East Side's most unlikely murderess. Daisy's victims deserve their grisly comeuppance, painted as they are by Jong-Fast as simple villains, though Daisy herself is hardly an avenging angel. As a campy bloodbath %C3%A0 la Patrick Bateman in Jimmy Choos, the story succeeds, but the critique of the excesses of the recent past gets lost in the fluff. (May)