Barbies hanging out together on the French Riviera
Imagine how I felt when I came across these Barbie dolls (and a few Kens) sitting or lounging on a vendor’s table, just steps from the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France while I was there during a holiday weekend in May.
Quelle trésor! (What a treasure!)
No, I’m not a Barbie collector, but a character in my new thriller THE BARBIE KILLER is–sort of. The Barbies in the photo were taken out of their original boxes long ago, I suspect. However, they look newer than the Barbie (and the Skipper and Midge) my sister and I played with when we were young. Like the ones my daughter had when she was little, they are wearing a variety of outfits, lots of different hairstyles, and lots of pink. But none have on the slim houndstooth skirt or red shoes worn by the Barbie on the cover of my novel.
THE BARBIE KILLER was published on March 31, 2026 in print and on Kindle by Red Adept Publishing, and is also available in Kindle Unlimited. Its launch at my local bookstore, Story & Song, was a smashing success: We had a packed house, and the store sold out of books that day. You can order copies there or at any bookstore, and once you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down–I promise.
A recent reviewer described it as “a fast-paced psychological thriller that blends small-town paranoia, buried secrets, and serial-killer suspense into an entertaining, highly readable mystery.”
Another said: “The suspense grabs you from page one, and the tension steadily builds as the narrative shifts between the tortured thinking of the killer and the creepy coldness of the men and women who inhabit the superficially ‘normal’ Midwestern town where the book is set.”
Although pink isn’t my favorite, I love color, as you can tell by the dress I’m wearing here. And color is everywhere in the south of France, especially during the month of May. I don’t think the collection of Barbie dolls in THE BARBIE KILLER includes a French one, but I could be wrong. But I do know that there’s an assortment of them, new and old.
To find out why, well, you’ll just have to read the book!
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