Guest Post by Miriam Auerbach

About the book

Patients at a posh Boca Raton rehab center are ending up stiffer than a Boca babe’s smile. Tough PI Harriet Horowitz, once a bedazzled babe herself, signs in at The Oasis at the request of a frightened friend.

As a pattern emerges in the murders, it’s clear the killer is targeting patients with an unusual addiction. How did they end up with the same drug problem at the same time and in the same rehab together? Harriet’s sleuthing leads her down a path of secrets and danger, and what she learns could lead her undercover assignment to a dead end.

Guest Post by Miriam Auerback

WHAT IS A BOCA BABE?

Boca Raton, Florida, has been hailed as the Beverly Hills of the East Coast. Now, to me, that’s a claim that cries out for corroboration. So let’s see – what are the commonalities between Beverly Hills and Boca? Opulent mansions and beautiful shopping areas? Check.  Young blonde women precariously balancing a size sixteen stack atop a size two tuchus?  Check. But frankly, I think they’ve got it backwards – it should be Beverly Hills that aspires to be the Boca of the West Coast. After all, we’ve got some home-grown beauts that they can’t shake a stick at.  Namely, we’ve got Boca Babes.  What, you may ask, is a Boca Babe?  Here are some clues:

•    If you live in a house the size of a jumbo jet hangar, then you are likely a Boca Babe.
•    If you don’t talk to anyone who doesn’t own anything made by Prada, then you just might be a Boca Babe.
•    If Neiman Marcus is #1 on your cell phone speed dial, you might be a Boca Babe.
•    If you’ve had diamond studs soldered into your earlobes, you could be a Boca Babe.
•    If your dog owns more clothing and toys that some people’s children, you just might be a Boca Babe.
•    If the only thing you know how to make for dinner is reservations, you are probably a Boca Babe.
•    And if you are all these things but you’ve hit the big 4-0, then you’re no longer a Boca Babe – you’re now a Botox Babe.

In sum, Boca Babes are high-maintenance, highly enhanced, high-end consumers married to high-income men. To illustrate, here is a pic of me posing as a Boca Babe (no, really, I’m just posing – this is not my everyday appearance!).

My series protagonist, Harriet Horowitz, is an ex-Boca Babe. Why an ex? Here’s the thing: a rich husband, no matter how revolting, is the price of admission to the Boca Babe Club. Harriet’s husband was indeed revolting. He abused her for ten years. Finally she’d had enough. One day when her husband raised his fists at her one last time, she told him, “Go ahead – make my day.” He obliged, and she shot him through the heart – with his (now hers) .44 Magnum.

Due to the influence of a wealthy friend, the local Boca philanthropist Contessa von Phul, Harriet’s act was ruled justifiable homicide. And Harriet embarked on a new identity – Dirty Harriet – and new life. She sold everything, bought a Harley, and moved to a desolate cabin in the Everglades. She swapped swank for swamp, indulgence for independence. 

Harriet embarked on a new career as well: she opened up her own private eye agency, ScamBusters. And business is booming. Boca’s got a slew of scams. Investment scams, insurance scams, immigration scams – you name it, we’ve got it. So Harriet is doing just fine as a ScamBuster. But occasionally, murder intrudes. So far, Harriet has had four murderous adventures in the Dirty Harriet Mystery Series, including the latest, Boca Undercover.

But I don’t think Boca Babes are confined to Boca.  What do you think – do you have a version of Boca Babes in your town?

About the author

Miriam Auerbach is the author of a satirical mystery series set in Boca Raton, Florida and featuring Harley-riding, wisecracking female private eye Harriet Horowitz. Her debut novel, Dirty Harriet, won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Series Romance. Miriam can only assume that this is because the heroine kills her husband on page one. In a parallel universe, Miriam is known as Miriam Potocky, professor of social work at Florida International University in Miami. She lives in South Florida with her husband and their multicultural canines, a Welsh Corgi and a Brussels Griffon.

Connect with Miriam:
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