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Thankful that her home in New Orleans was spared the worst of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding, Charlotte Larue is working hard to keep her cleaning business, Maid-For-A-Day, successful. Though she doesn't like to work for hotels, she is working in one now. An old friend of Charlotte's runs The New Orleans Jazzy Hotel in the historic Garden District. She is severely short-staffed and has begged Charlotte for help. Many of her people left after the hurricane and haven't returned and of the three remaining maids, one is out sick and another was just fired for stealing, so Charlotte has taken on the temporary duties of a maid there. On Charlotte's first day at the hotel, she sees that the local chapter of the Red Scarf Sorority, a group of like-minded women in their 40s who wear red scarves, is meeting there. When the leader of the group, Tessa Morgan, turns on Charlotte as she's cleaning her room, Charlotte learns that the woman's husband is at the hotel with his business – and his mistress – who just announced their wedding plans. Charlotte also finds out that Tessa is the daughter of her oldest boyfriend, Mack Sutton the man who actually introduced Charlotte to the love of her life. Charlotte isn't thrilled with all the goings-on between the members of his family but she does accept Mack's invitation to get together at dinner as they had been close once. To her displeasure the meal turns out to be a family business meeting and she learns that there is a lot of backstabbing going on. Mack's granddaughter Belinda is there and Charlotte isn't happy about how the family is pulling at the young woman to take sides with either her father or her mother. Charlotte can't help but take a liking to the girl. At least Mack's daughter doesn't attend the dinner and neither does the mistress, Lisa. The next day Lisa is found dead, strangled by a red scarf with a unique earring on the floor by her side. Almost immediately, Tessa Morgan is arrested as she had a red scarf, owned the earrings, had every reason to kill her husband's mistress – and she had no alibi for the night. Although Charlotte does her best to not get involved, as the maid she can't help but overhear a lot of secrets. She is certain that Tessa didn't kill Lisa and for Belinda's sake, she feels she must help the investigation to put the real guilty party in jail. This is the sixth and latest entry in the Charlotte Larue, Maid-For-A-Day mystery series and it's as enjoyable as all of the others. Though this time many of the regular maids are on vacation, a few of Charlotte's friends and relatives are in attendance and this keeps the story going strongly. Charlotte is still the very moral, strongly opinionated woman she has been in the past. She does snoop, but she is against the deed and will rationalize the need for it. After all, to save an innocent from jail and to put away a murderer, one must do what one must do. Because the series is set in New Orleans, author Barbara Colley manages to permit the readers to understand the feelings of the people who reside there, both the ones who lost their homes, and others, like Charlotte, whose houses still stand, but who still have the emotional scars that goes with the destruction of your much beloved hometown. SCRUB-A-DUB DEAD manages to be a well-written mystery and a first-rate cozy. The solution to the case was well put together and the likable and realistic emotions and the relationships between the characters in the book makes the readers yearn for yet another installment. I know I will be on the lookout for the next in this wonderful series.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, February 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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