"To
oblige a friend, New Orleans housecleaner Charlotte LaRue takes
a temporary job at the Garden District's Jazzy Hotel, where the
body count keeps rising. It's
lucky that members of the Red Scarf Sorority are committed to helping
each other, because Sorority president Tessa Morgan really needs
help. Her accountant husband Frank is bent on marrying Lisa, his
much younger inamorata, and he wants a divorce. Worse, he insists
that Tessa file for the divorce. Through a series of intermediaries
including his daughter Belinda and his secretary Margaret Green,
he's been pressing Tessa to sign the papers while Lisa stays as
a guest in the Jazzy right under the noses of the Red Scarf ladies.
When Lisa ends up with a red scarf around her neck, Detectives
Gavin Brown and Judith Monroe, Charlotte's niece, consider Tessa
the prime suspect. But thanks to Charlotte's talent for discernment,
and her much greater talent for overhearing things (some accidentally,
some not), the case is soon complicated by new suspects, from Christopher,
the mysterious suitor who continues to pursue Lisa even after she
tells him she's engaged to a married man, to Mack Sutton, Tessa's
stepfather, who turns out to have a long-standing, and surprisingly
intimate, history with Charlotte. A routine mystery enlivened by
romantic interludes like this one: "As far as kisses went,
it was more of a friendly type of kiss as opposed to the passionate
type."" ~ Kirkus Reviews
"Charlotte
is at her best whether she is cleaning, encountering a former
beau turned suspect, or just
sleuthing ...
series fans will appreciate
the heroine’s latest escapades as she scrubs for clues, not
accepting that the president of the Red Scarf Sorority would commit
such a dumb crime —even in passion—without at least
cleaning the crime scene." ~Harriet Klausner
"Catching
up with Charlotte LaRue is like spending time with an old friend,
albeit one usually in the mix of a murder
mystery. The mystery in this enjoyable page-turner takes a while
to get started, but that’s all the more time to learn what’s
been going on with the characters, especially retired detective
Louis Thibodeaux, since her last adventure.
"This outing, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, has Charlotte
putting her Maid-for-a-Day company in the hands of her assistant
so that she can fill in for a friend at the Jazzy Hotel. There,
Charlotte has a run-in with an upset Tessa Morgan, whose husband
is having an affair with a younger woman, Lisa. Not surprisingly,
there is more to Lisa’s story than originally thought. When
she’s murdered and the clues point to Tessa, the wife is
quickly arrested.
"But something doesn’t feel right to Charlotte, so she
takes an extra look around the hotel rooms she’s cleaning.
When trouble comes calling (literally), Charlotte keeps asking
herself
why she didn’t mind her own business." ~RT
BookClub, Sandra
Garcia-Myers
"As
a favor to a friend, New Orleans cleaning lady extraordinaire
Charlotte LaRue (Married to the Mop)
is working at the Jazzy Hotel in the Garden District where she
hears much too much about the
personal lives of the Red Scarf Sorority, a group staying at the
hotel. Then a young woman is murdered, and Charlotte
believes that the police are looking at the wrong
suspect.
"In her sixth series title, Colley has not lost her flair for throwing
Charlotte into dangerous situations. For cozy fans. Colley lives
in New Orleans." ~ Library Journal
A
great read!
"Charlotte
is very likeable, she reminds me of Jessica Fletcher from Murder
She Wrote. She's a nice lady who struggles
with minding her own business and doing the right thing.
"Charlotte
is a big fan of mysteries and crime dramas. She has learned how
to carefully and methodically collect clues to piece
together the evidence. Her family and friends are torn between
being proud of Charlotte's amateur detective skills and worrying
for her safety.
"I
read this when we had a NO power for three days caused by a winter
storm in the Northwest. This was a great way to spend the
time since the book really engages the reader and the story keeps
moving forward. I was able to guess some things, but there are
enough twists to give it a surprise ending." ~
Armchair Interviews
"I
love Charlotte. I wish she’d come clean my
house! I enjoyed this book set in a hotel. It gave lots of new
characters for the story. The author did a great job of creating
a web of intrigue in the middle of the murder. There were plenty
of twists and turns as she eliminated suspects. I highly recommend
this book and series."
~ Dawn Dowdle, MysteryLoversCorner
"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." ~Sharon Katz, Reviewing the Evidence
More
Reviews Coming Soon!
Maid
for a day Charlotte LaRue knows that sweeping murder under the rug
is anything but simple in the Big Easy–especially since no
smudge or stain is safe from her scrutiny ...
