The woman cleans ruthlessly - no item, even live ones such as pets – is safe around her. Everyone and everything is a target for her scrub brush, duster, and polish rag. This obsession does not set well with the laid back Jake who learns that the cleanliness mania seems to be triggered by the woman’s former husband, a newly released felon who lives in the next town.

Ellie, Jake, the baby and babysitter set out to find the man only to stumble upon his corpse who was beaned with a frying pan - and one is missing from the housekeeper’s kitchen. Couple this situation with worries over her son’s recent and tenuous sobriety, his breakup with the girl “everyone” liked and his attachment to a most unsuitable girl, Jake’s relationship with the father who deserted her years ago and a family reunion looming in the future with no place to house any extra bodies and Jake and her entourage are quite busy.

Graves inserts handy home hints into each chapter which is charming but so derivative of the Davidson’s series that they lose the intended effect. There are many references to earlier books which tend to make the reader feel that some clues are missing and can be a sore point to those just picking up this particular book; indeed if I were giving a grade this series would rate about a “B” taking away some points for “lack of originality” and insufficient footnotes. I don’t think I would go out of my way to seek out others in this series.

--Jane Davis