THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNESTINE

When Ellie Haskell (Bridesmaids Revisited, 2000, etc.) finds her husband Ben less than pleased with her makeover of his study, she does what any true-blue mental case would do. On the pretext of returning a lost tube of lipstick, she rushes out to visit Roxie Malloy, her housekeeper, who’s moonlighting as a cleaner-upper at Mr. Jugg’s detective agency. After they proceed to punish her employer’s obligatory stash of bourbon, a late-arriving client mistakes the tipsy matrons for detectives, and they soon find themselves engaged by Lady Krumley of Moultty Towers, Biddlington-by-Water, to find Ernestine, the daughter of her late housemaid Flossie Jones, unjustly fired 30 years ago on suspicion of stealing Lady Krumley’s emerald brooch. Wimpy nephew Niles Edmonds and her shrewish wife Cynthia are useless, Cousin Alphonse is too eccentric to care, and Cousin Vincent is no help at all, having fallen into a well and died the week before trying to find his missing dog. But Mrs. Beetle, the cook, thinks Mrs. Hasty, the former housekeeper who’s retired to a cottage on the grounds, might know something, and indeed she might—if overprotective lady’s maid Laureen Phillips would just let her share her wisdom. So might Constable Thatcher’s ten-year-old son Ronald, if he’d only leave off chucking flowerpots at passing cars long enough to tell. It takes a lot of legwork—Roxie’s in four-inch heels—for the two sleuths to crack the case before the Krumleys crumble.

A painfully arch but amusing tale of upstairs, downstairs, and inside-out.