Bubbles Yablonsky

Bubbles Yablonsky is the fictional protagonist of the Bubbles series of screwball mysteries by Sarah Strohmeyer. She first appeared in Bubbles Unbound, published in 2001; as of 2006, she has appeared in six novels by Strohmeyer strictly about Bubbles, with an extra cameo in Strohmeyers "The Cinderella Pact," appearing as a friend of the main character's sister.

Bubbles Unbound got the Agatha Award for best first novel in 2001. It has been translated to French in 2006 (Bubbles se lâche - Fleuve Noir - ).

Bubbles is a high-energy beautician-cum-rookie-reporter. She is a divorced single mom, self-described as a "Polish-Lithuanian Barbie doll in Lehigh, Pennsylvania," a town based loosely on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She appears as a kind of hybrid between Marilyn Monroe and Columbo.

She has an ex-husband, "Dan the Man", and a daughter, Jane, a rebellious teenager with Kool-Aid colored hair and black lipstick. Bubbles has a degree in journalism and is a freelance reporter for the local newspaper, The Lehigh News-Times.

The series covers adventures and misadventures with Bubbles and other characters - Steve Stiletto (a photojournalist and Mel Gibson lookalike), Lulu Yablonsky (Bubbles's mother), Genevieve (a gun-toting septuagenarian), Sandy (her best friend and salon owner), and Lorena Ludwig (a photographer with The News-Times with anger management issues).

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