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As if she didn't have enough on her plate, with the always shaky finances of her bookstore, Claire Malloy discovers a rat in her kitchen, only one of the armada of unwanted critters who have invaded, thanks to the cavalier attitude to trash by the students who rent the apartment below hers. Claire threatens her landlord with the wrath of every health organization on the planet, a threat that sufficiently cows him to order the apartment fumigated and the offending students evicted. However the enterprise will take two weeks, for which time Claire and her daughter must vacate their apartment. Enter a good angel, Claire's well-heeled new customer Dolly Goforth, who offers Claire, Caron, and Caron's friend Inez the use of her McMansion for two weeks. She also, very improbably, offers the teenage Caron the use of her Mercedes. As Claire, Caron, and Inez wallow in the swimming pool and jacuzzi, their idyll is interrupted when the two girls discover a body near the gazebo. Unfortunately, when the authorities arrive the body is gone. The corpse resurfaces in the freezer and is finally identified as a minor Mafioso from Flatbush. The mystery of Mr Mordella sets off Claire's investigative instincts. The well-crafted plot reels through international scandal involving the FBI, the federal witness protection program, and the Mafia (accounting for another murder), not to mention the Farberville police and Claire's lover, police detective Peter Rosen. At bottom, no one is who he/she purports to be. Maybe it's because I grew up in a city, but I found Claire's willingness to admit total strangers into the house and to confide very personal information somewhat unbelievable. The plot is at its most hilarious when Caron fulminates on her future, sure to be dreadful. She'll be forced to become a foster child, sent off to a pig farm, where she'll drive a pick-up truck and "grow old and stinky." Claire is not to be outdone in the wit department. When Peter contemplates buying a boat and sailing to an as yet undiscovered tropical isle, Claire says: "I hate to break it to you, but all the natives have satellite dishes and earn their living day-trading in coconut futures." Any visit with Claire and Caron is a treat, and this is one of the very best.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, May 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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