"Lighthearted serio-comic amateur sleuth mystery"

When Anne Johnson discovered her husband was cheating, she divorced him but unlike most women who catch their spouse cheating, she is content because she was never happy in her marriage. She moves into the prestigious Kennedy apartment building and she misses neither her husband nor her children as she revels in being alone and being able to decide what she wants to do.

The fifty year old divorcee is shaken to hear a voice in her head saying that a murder will occur in the Kennedy in thirty days and she must prevent it from happening. Not knowing what to think, she goes to the laundry room where she meets Mary, a cleaning woman for many of the apartments in the building. She confides about what the voice says to Mary who doesn't believe Anne is crazy. Together they cook up a scheme where Anne has a housewarming party so that they can look for potential murder suspects and victims. What follows is a friendship that involves a whacky investigation that leads to the criminals who want to silence Anne before she finds out their secret.

This is a lighthearted serio-comic amateur sleuth mystery based on a voice in the protagonist's head. The heroine is a delightfully quirky individual who marches to her own drummer and her friendship with the cleaning lady is instant. The mystery of who is behind the suspected crime comes very late in the book but readers won't feel any disappointment because the author is, without being obvious, sprinkling clues that leads to the killer throughout the tale. This is a very special, unique and exciting mystery featuring characters that are razor sharp and diabolically clever.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 30, 2005

Summary

Free-spirited and freshly divorced, fifty-year-old Anne Johnson is living the good life. With plenty of money to keep her comfortable, she spends her nights in her luxurious, elegant apartment in Washington, D.C., cuddled up beside the fireplace with a good book in one hand and a perfect martini in the other.

Then, from nowhere, Anne hears a voice in her head, warning that there will be a murder in her building in thirty days—and that only she can stop it. Without a clue about what to do, she confides in Mary, the building's large-and-in-charge cleaning woman—and together, they plan a party to ferret out the would-be killer before time runs out.

As they make preparations, Anne makes a list of potential suspects, which unfortunately includes the gorgeous Russian neighbor she can't stop lusting after. But as much fun as Anne and Mary are having, the clock keeps ticking—and if they don't act quickly, the swanky soiree might end up a goodbye party—for them...