Heroine Judith Daniels' friend Lacey calls Judith in the middle of the night and asks Judith to help her because she thinks she's being watched and someone wants to kill her. Judith doesn't pay too much attention to the phone call. Lacey has always been overly dramatic, imagining things, exaggerating. But twelve hours later, Lacey is dead.

Judith feels guilty about Lacey's death and she wonders if there was some truth to what Lacey was trying to tell her on the phone. Judith decides to go to The Puppet Factory (where Lacey was working) and try to get a job there. She is looking for info about her friend's death. Was it an accident, or was it murder? (Judith works at the newspaper, the Philadelphia Mirror, where she does a fix-it column, though she really wants to do investigative journalism.) She arrives at The Puppet Factory and eventually gets a job there. She meets the head of The Puppet Factory, Ryan Smith. He is a brilliant, world-famous puppeteer and he controls a multi-million dollar corporation. Judith also meets the employees of The Puppet Factory. As she secretly looks for clues as to what really happened to Lacey, Judith gets the feeling that she is being watched, and soon attempts are made on her life...

This was a really enjoyable read, even though it was a bit strange. The Puppet Factory setting sure was different. The heroine (Judith) was pretty strong and gutsy at times. Nothing seemed to put her off her undercover investigation of The Puppet Factory. She was always digging around for clues, trying to find out if Lacey was murdered. Judith was described as resembling a young Grace Kelly. Hero Ryan nicknamed her "princess", which she hated. Judith and Ryan had good chemistry. The storyline was sometimes ridiculous, but captivating. I was always curious to find out what was going to happen next.

A fun, odd, entertaining read from the 80's. ( )