False Step (Hardcover, Main)

Something doesn't sit right with Bea Abbott (False Charity, 2007, etc.) when her employee finds a client dead, an apparent suicide.Maybe it was the dress, with its red satin bodice and frilled petticoat, spread lovingly over the corpse. Maybe it was the red spangled shoes. Whatever it was, it led Florrie Green to call her boss, Bea Abbott, as soon as she found Matthew Kent dead in bed in the house that the Abbott Agency had sent the Green Girls Cleaning Company to tidy. Not that the clothes weren't Matthew's; all his publicity stills showed the female impersonator meticulously costumed in ultra-feminine style. But why would the jovial performer kill himself? His two ex-wives, schoolteacher Gail and singer Goldie, don't seem to care apart from their intent to loot Matthew's two-story Victorian of knickknacks. And his stepdaughter Damaris Frasier has her eye on the lovely home itself. So all three are gobsmacked to learn that Matthew left his house to Lily, the daughter of his accompanist Bert Cunningham. Determined to fight, Damaris hires the Abbott Agency to inventory the property. The more she handles his belongings, the more unconvinced Bea is that Matthew's death was a suicide. Despite the twin distractions of builders in her office and an errant son on her doorstep, kicked out of his marital home by a jealous wife, Bea discovers a conspiracy that almost defies description.Clever clueing and a shocking solution place what would otherwise have been a routine cozy above the competition. (Kirkus Reviews)

An Abbot Agency Mystery Bea Abbot's domestic agency does not, repeat not, investigate murder...that is, until she finds herself in the company of a dead man dressed as a pantomime dame. It looks like suicide, but why don't his red-spangled shoes fit? Matthew Kent was an entertainer known to be a kindly and modest man in private, so why had he staged this grotesque charade in death? And why is his daughter so keen to hustle his mortal remains away without publicity? Then again, who exactly inherits his delightful Kensington house, and which of the women around him - two surviving wives and a daughter - really cared about him, rather than his money? Bea's own house is in chaos as builders remodel the agency offices, and to make matters worse, Max, her Member of Parliament son, moves in with her when his marriage looks like breaking down. Struggling to run the agency from her bedroom, concerned about both her young assistants' emotional problems, Bea tries to discover what the body on the bed was really like in life, why there is so much confusion about his death, and who is destined to die next...

General

Imprint:	Severn House Publishers
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	An Abbot Agency mystery
Release date:	December 2008
First published:	March 2009
Authors:	Veronica Heley
Dimensions:	222 x 137 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Paper over boards
Pages:	240
Edition:	Main
ISBN-13:	978-0-7278-6708-7
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > General
LSN:	0-7278-6708-3
Barcode:	9780727867087

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!