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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Cozy Mystery, Jun 6 2003
This is Kathy Hogan Trocheck's first mystery published. Normally, I would be afraid to pick up anyone's first mystery, but Trocheck comes off as a seasoned professional. It is a smooth fast read.Callahan Garrity, former Atlanta police officer, tried her hand at becoming a personal investigator. After finding out that it was not as lucrative as she had hoped, and nearly at the end of her money, Callahan bought the "House Mouse" cleaning service with her hard talking, chain smoking, blue haired mother Edna Mae Garrity. Running a cleaning service puts Callahan in touch with an interesting cross section of the population. Her cleaning staff is quite a colorful cast of women. Then there is the other end of the spectrum, her clientele. Callahan, by an odd twist of fate, has to go clean the home of a new client when she faces a labor shortage one morning. Upon arriving on the premises, who does she find is married to one of the local society big shots, but a sorority sister from her college days. Imagine that, and Callahan wearing an apron. What starts off as a routine cleaning job turns into a crime investigation. What starts as a crime investigation turns into a series of crimes being investigated, and all of this while trying to keep a business running. In the course of cleaning homes, the members of the House Mouse are in a position to learn the most intimate details about their client's lives. Her cleaning staff learns the finer points of investigating crimes, all the while cleaning house. Callahan has to tap into her old connection at the police department to solve the heinous crimes. We find out quite a bit about her tenure on the force. There is a wonderful thread of religious misunderstanding and education as a sub-thread of the tale. Some have criticized that this thread was not as detailed as it could have been, but I would argue that it cleared up quite a few misconceptions, enough to make that plot element work. If a reader wanted to know all of the nitty gritty details of that faith, they could research further on their own. I despise spoilers, so I will not give any more on the plot, but it is a good fast read with engaging characters.
The gore factor is low, and there are a few salty words, but few and far between. It has a pretty lightweight feel overall. I plan on reading more of Kathy Hogan Trocheck's books, and hope to see much more of Callahan Garrity and especially Edna Mae Garrity.
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