Dusted to Death

November 2, 2009
In Colley's featherweight eighth mystery to feature New Orleans maid Charlotte LaRue (after 2008's Wash and Die
), Charlotte must keep tidy a Garden District mansion being used as a set for a movie starring legendary actor Hunter Lansky and hot rising actress Angel Martinique. Filming's barely underway when Charlotte discovers Angel's two-timing boyfriend stabbed to death with a letter opener, which turns out to be covered with Angel's fingerprints. Angel's chauffeur asks Charlotte to investigate, and the two head to Oakdale, Miss., to learn what they can about Angel's early life. Charlotte's PI boyfriend, Louis Thibodeaux, can't help because he's out of town, but Charlotte, a housecleaner's answer to Jessica Fletcher, has learned that cheese graters, bleach and buckets can come in handy in her sleuthing work. Charlotte is a sweetie, but this conventional cozy series could use some extra-strength twists to give it more heft.

November 1, 2009
Charlotte, who runs a maid service, is hired to protect a customer's belongings while a Hollywood movie is filmed in the customer's New Orleans home. But she is shocked by the actors' antics and the ugly side of a Hollywood production. VERDICT This cozy series ("Wash and Die; Scrub-a-Dub Dead") gets better with each book. Colley allows Charlotte to grow as a character while still telling the delightful mysteries that will appeal to Diane Mott Davidson fans.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2009
Housekeeper almost gets her clock cleaned when a movie company shoots in her client's Greek Revival home.

As owner of Maid-for-a-Day, Charlotte LaRue (Wash and Die, 2008, etc.) normally has her pick of which jobs to take herself and which to hand over to her employees. But it's hard to say no to Bitsy Duh', widow of New Orleans' former mayor and one of Charlotte's oldest customers. Besides, watching over a movie shoot in Bitsy's mansion sounds like a piece of cake—and with her handsome neighbor Louis Thibodeaux acting kind of weird, Charlotte won't at all mind getting a peek at leading man Hunter Lansky. Leading lady Angel Martinique is another story—flighty, fussy and peremptory. Her tantrums mess up the shooting schedule, her long list of dos and don'ts drive makeup artist Heather Cortez crazy, and her fights with boyfriend Nick Franklin keep bodyguard Toby Russell busy full time. So soon after Nick is stabbed to death, the NOPD's Gavin Brown has Angel in cuffs. But her driver Benny Jackson, a childhood friend of Charlotte's son Hank, thinks she's been set up and begs the cleaner to investigate. Together they drive down to Angel's hometown, Oakdale, Miss., where they learn enough to cast serious doubt on the star's guilt and to put Charlotte in serious danger.

An eighth straightforward puzzle in which likable amateur sleuth Charlotte does her level best to straighten up someone else's mess.

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