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EVERY CROOKED NANNY by Kathy Hogan Trocheck

EVERY CROOKED NANNY

by Kathy Hogan Trocheck

Pub Date: June 3rd, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-017923-6
Publisher: HarperCollins

Cloying debut of ex-Atlanta cop turned part-time p.i. Callahan Garrity, who, with her wisecracking, three-pack-a-day mom, Edna Mae, also runs House Mouse, a cleaning business that's short on help, which means that Callahan arrives to tidy the Beamish residence just as Kristee, the nanny, is discovered missing—along with jewels, furs, rare coins, and important business papers. Callahan also discovers that the wayward Kristee was juggling three romances, had lied about her Mormon background, was blackmailing the philandering Bo Beamish about a shady real-estate deal he'd hustled, and, as a result of all this—or some of it—is now lying dead in the fur vault at Rich's department store. Whodunit? The House Mouse maids reconnoiter various homes, while the police arrest the wrong suspect. Meanwhile, Callahan makes lots of calls to Utah; Edna Mae pays the killer a visit; and the sinners are separated from the Church of the Latter-day Saints. Overly cute, with (predictably) the cleanup crews finding all the clues. And heavy-handed attempts at social satire, plus leaden repartee between Callahan and her mom and cop friends, don't help.