False Conclusion

March 1, 2019
Bea Abbot runs a domestic-service agency in London and dabbles in sleuthing. She takes pride in providing highly qualified staff but feels she may have met her match when Marcia Tredgold and her daughter, Charlotte, sweep imperiously into the office and demand that Bea immediately provide them with a cook, a cleaner, and a butler (Charlotte has fired the previous staff). Then Marcia insists on seeing Bea privately and confides that what she really wants is for Bea to find out who killed her cats. Bea fears she's dealing with a nutcase, but intrigued by the bizarre request, she agrees to do what she can, eventually unraveling the whole story behind the case of the cat killer. The result, however, is so strange and sad that Bea rather wishes she'd left the whole thing alone. Still, she can add one more case solved to her growing file of sleuthing successes. A good choice for fans of the British cozy, especially those with an Agatha Christie feel, combining gentle humor, an intrepid heroine, and an unusual plot with quirky twists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)