E.J. Pugh and her family have the most wonderful next-door neighbors in the world. The Pugh family and the Lester family have definitely bonded. E.J. and Terry Lester are as close as sisters, their husbands are best friends, too. Their four-year-old daughters have been practically raised together, E.J's son Graham idolizes Terry's older son and the Lesters even have a teenage daughter who baby-sits.

So imagine the horror when E. J. goes next door to pick up the Lester children for the daily car pool and discovers the entire family murdered except for four-year-old Bessie. Bessie is in shock and rendered speechless, and the small town Texas police department seems all too ready to believe that Roy Lester brutally murdered his wife and children before killing himself.

Although the evidence points to Roy Lester as the murderer, E.J. and her husband Willis can't believe it of this man they knew so well. But they seem to be the only ones who believe that a thorough investigation is in order.

And when E.J. starts asking questions and blasting the police department in her own brash, sharp-tongued way, she unwittingly puts herself and her family in mortal danger.

E. J. Pugh is one terrific heroine. She's wise and witty and extraordinarily loyal. Even though she is grief-stricken at the loss of her best friend and her family, E. J. believes that she owes it to Terry to persist in her search for the truth.

But what makes her a great character is that she has normal human emotions and shortcomings. Her surprise upon learning that she and Willis are Bessie's guardians and her concern for a future with a child who may need extensive, expensive therapy is understandable. E. J. isn't a saint. She can be crude and rude. But I wish she were my next-door neighbor.

Romance readers will enjoy the relationship between E. J. and her husband Willis. Although they constantly bicker and, for a while, aren't even speaking to each other, this is a loving, lusty marriage.

Put your feet up and lock your doors (or maybe the other way around!). One, Two, What Did Daddy Do? at 212 pages is a little gem of a mystery.

--Dede Anderson