Grime and Punishment

Jill Churchill

The suburban neighborhood where Jane Jeffrey lives with her three children is never quiet. The women are busy keeping either jobs or families. The teens, like her oldest son Mike, are learning to drive and involved in high school activities. The young teens, like her daughter Katie, are busy with junior high/middle school activities. Even the younger children, like her son Todd, are running to little league games and school fairs. This week the neighborhood is even busier. When the weekly cleaning woman is cleaning Jane's next door neighbor's home, she is strangled with the vacuum cleaner cord.

Jane, a new widow, is still adjusting to being a single parent. Her mother-in-law is trying to move in and take over. Now she gets involved with solving the murder. The local police detective tells her and Shelly, her neighbor and best friend, to keep out of the way. They do not listen. They come up with clues that they are sure point out the murderer. Yet they have problems believing that one of the women in their neighborhood could be a murderer.

This is a cozy, bit-of-fluff mystery. It's cute; the mystery is well done. It is not great writing or great fiction, but a good diversion.

Grime and Punishment
A Farewll to Yarns
A Quiche Before Dying
The Class Menagerie
A Knife to Remember
From Here to Paternity
Silence of the Hams
War and Peas
Fear of Frying
The Merchant of Menace
A Groom with a View
Mulch Ado About Nothing
The House of Seven Mables
Bell, Book and Scandal
A Midsummer's Night's Scream
The Accidental Florist

Murder on a Girl's Night Out Day by Anne George