FALSE ALARM

Domestic matters both personal and professional loom large for the owner of the Abbot Agency (False Report, 2012, etc.).

Solving a murder is not at the head of Bea Abbot’s to-do list, especially given the merger of her domestic agency with the larger Holland and Butcher. But Maggie, Bea’s former assistant and now project manager in her own right, is threatening to move out from under Bea’s roof and into a penthouse owned by Maggie’s mother. Sir Lucas Ossett, the fourth husband of Maggie’s mom, moved out of their marital home after taking a tumble down the stairs, and Bea offers to discover who planted the tripwire that caused the tycoon’s nasty fall. Spry seniors Carrie Kempton and Lucy Emerson are only too glad to give Bea their take on the minor mysteries in the Ossetts’ building. What kind of therapist is Carmela Lessbury, who sees only male clients and only in the afternoon? What happened to Tariq, a young, gay South Asian, who seems to have disappeared after Sir Lucas fired him from a tech job at Vicori Corporation? And who poisoned Momi, professor Jacobsen’s cat? The mysteries progress from minor to major when someone pushes the building’s irritable caretaker off Tariq’s balcony. Even Bea’s MI5 friend CJ Cambridge warns her that things are murky at Vicori. Can she unmask a killer and keep Maggie home where she belongs?

The Abbot Agency’s seventh outing will be just the thing for readers who like their cozies with a bit of bite.