The Importance of Being Ernestine: An Ellie Haskell Mystery - Hardcover

Cannell, Dorothy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670030600 ISBN 13: 9780670030606

Publisher: Viking Penguin, 2002

Synopsis

Ellie Haskell becomes unwittingly drawn into a mystery with her moonlighting housekeeper when a modish matriarch reports that the surviving daughter of a late ex-employee may be seeking revenge by killing off her mother's former employers and their descendants. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

This is Dorothy Cannell's twelfth mystery. Her others include Bridesmaids Revisited, The Trouble with Harriet, The Spring Cleaning Murders, The Thin Woman, Down the Garden Path, and the Agatha Award nominee The Widows' Club.

From Publishers Weekly:

In her dozenth delight, Agatha nominee Cannell dishes up a dizzy spoof of American hard-boiled private-eye fiction (after 2001's Bridesmaids Revisited). Ellie Haskell attempts a surprise for her husband, Ben, by redecorating his study, but when her gift seemingly bombs, she seeks comfort and wisdom from her worldly daily, Mrs. Roxy Malloy. Mrs. Malloy has been moonlighting as Girl Friday to a local PI, "Milk" Jugg, and Ellie's nocturnal visit to Jugg's office coincides with the appearance of a new client, Lady Krumley. Mrs. Malloy graciously allows Ellie to act as her assistant in Jugg's absence, and they plunge fearlessly and fecklessly into Lady Krumley's case. Many years widowed, Lady Krumley once sacked a parlor maid, Flossie, whom she suspected of having stolen a valuable brooch. Flossie also managed to get herself in the family way while at Moultty Towers, and later expired from tuberculosis while trying to care for herself and her daughter, Ernestine. With her dying breath, Flossie cursed the Krumley family, and various Krumleys have recently shuffled off the mortal coil in amusingly eccentric ways. Lady Krumley wants to find the missing Ernestine and right ancient wrongs, hoping to avert any further mysterious accidents. Using Ellie's cover as an interior designer, the two gumshoes besiege the denizens of Moultty Towers, and the game is afoot. Cannell orchestrates plenty of laughs along with a clever plot, merrily winking at readers as she pokes fun at numerous genre conventions.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Penguin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0670030600
• ISBN 13: 9780670030606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248