Every Crooked Nanny (Callahan Garrity Mysteries)

Description

After ten years of cleaning up the dirt on Atlanta's streets, Callahan Garrity is trading in her badge for a broom and a staff of house cleaners. But, though the uniform is a little different, Callahan soon finds herself right back in the middle of a mystery when a client's pretty, pious nineteen-year-old nanny is gone ... along with the jewelry, silver, and a few rather sensitive real estate documents.

Before she knows it, the meticulous Callahan is up to her elbows in a case involving illicit love triangles, crooked business deals, long-distance scams, and a dead body. Now she has to roll up her sleeves and start some industrial strength sleuthing to solve -- and survive -- this mess.

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To Live & Die in Dixie (Callahan Garrity, No 2)

Description

From her time on the Atlanta police force, Callahan Garrity, house cleaner and private investigator extraordinaire, has excelled at mopping up messes -- of all kinds. But she has no idea what she's getting into when she agrees to work for infamous antiques dealer Elliot Littlefield.

The first day on the job she and her crew discover the bloodied body of a young woman in a bedroom -- and are soon on the trail of a priceless Civil War diary stolen by the killer. As if two crimes aren't enough, deadly serious collectors, right-wing radicals, and impulsive teenagers make the case even more difficult to tidy up ... and more dangerous.

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Strange Brew (Callahan Garrity Mysteries)

Description

The winds of change are blowing, bringing gentrification to Callahan Garrity's funky Atlanta neighborhood. Though it probably won't harm her House Mouse housecleaning service, not everyone welcomes the rebirth. And when the body of a murdered microbrewer is discovered in the aftermath of a furious Halloween gale, suspicion falls on the aging "flower child" shopkeeper whom the victim put out of business.

A former cop, Callahan isn't as quick to condemn a colorful local character as some law officers still on the force. But her investigative zeal is stirring up secrets that are forcing her to reassess old friendships and a one-time love -- and is brewing up more lethal trouble than Callahan and her "mice" can safely swallow.

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Lickety-Split

Description

Retired reporter extraordinaire Truman Kicklighter goes back into action when one of his oldest friends is accused of murder, an investigation that leads to a dangerous confrontation with a ruthless gang of gamblers that threatens his own life. Reprint.

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Crash Course

Description

Murder gets a green light

When Jackleen Canaday's newly bought dream machine--an '88 Corvette T-top--turns out to be a lemon, senior sleuth Truman Kicklighter comes to her aid. As they head for the dealership, they're spoiling for a fight but they're completely unprepared for what they find: the corpse of the man who sold Jackleen her clunker.

More than his passion for justice drives Truman to unmask the killer--the cops suspect Jackleen of murder. Truman goes undercover at the devious dealership and discovers a bloody trail of insurance fraud and drug money. That trail could lead him to the great showroom in the sky.

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Retired reporter Truman Kicklighter, flushed with the success of his first adventure (Lickety-Split), once again breaks out of the Fountain of Youth Residential Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. Almost immediately he finds himself up to his neck in hot water as he and a young woman who works at the rest home track down a used car scam that soon becomes deadly. Blessedly, there's nothing cute about Kathy Trocheck's creation-here is a senior citizen who is as crotchety as he is smart.

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Midnight Clear: A Callahan Garrity Mystery (Callahan Garrity Mysteries)

Description

Ex-Atlanta cop-turned-house-cleaning entrepreneur Callahan Garrity doesn't know what she is getting for Christmas, but she never expects the gift that arrives at her door: her estranged, ne'er-do-well brother, Brian, and his adorable three-year-old daughter, Maura. A rebel who's been in and out of trouble most of his life, Brian's deep in it now since he illegally abducted Maura from under the nose of his shrewish former wife.

When the beautiful child's mother is found murdered, the police come looking for Brian. And now, to save her brother and her holiday, Callahan -- along with her irascible mom, Edna, and a gaggle of House Mouse employees -- must uncover the truth and a killer, even if it means digging around the roots of her own family tree and exposing the rot underneath.

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Christmas festivities and family bonding provide the backdrop in this seventh mystery featuring cleaning service owner-operator Callahan Garrity. While Callahan and her mother Edna are busy preparing trifle and a potent Garrity version of eggnog for their annual Christmas bash, Callahan's youngest brother, Brian, appears after a 10-year absence. Edna is thrilled, both with Brian and with the granddaughter he has presented; Callahan is more dubious, particularly when it becomes clear that her brother has been in town for well over a year and that he has taken the 3-year-old Maura without her mother's permission. Callahan, with pressure from Edna, agrees to help Brian fight the custody battle against his ex, but things only get more complicated once the woman is found stabbed to death. Police, not surprisingly, put Brian at the top of their list of likely suspects. After all, if he is willing to commit one felony by kidnapping his daughter, what's to prevent him from murdering her mother?

Despite overtones of O.J.--Brian is also accused of occasionally resorting to violence--there is much to enjoy here: Edna's toilet-training philosophy, Maura's precociousness, and the suburban South's peculiar social dimensions (just what constitutes white trash, anyway?) provide much to chuckle over. Callahan and her band of merry mop-bearers take on the police, Brian's mother-in-law, and even Brian himself to demonstrate his innocence so that he can stay out of jail and secure custody. Callahan is an admirable and entertaining heroine. Kathy Hogan Trocheck has a lighter touch than Sarah Paretsky or Sue Grafton, and Callahan is rarely as unforgivably foolhardy as counterparts V.I. Warshawski or Kinsey Milhone can be. With Callahan and her more charming relations at the novel's heart, Midnight Clear offers jolly holiday reading with both poignant and hilarious moments. --K. Crouch

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