Maid for Murder

While I do agree the first part of the book was a tad slow, overall I found the book to be very enjoyable. A great murder mystery for those who don't want their murders too gruesome or complicated.

It's always a treat to find a new mystery author. Colley keeps the pages turning in this gentle cozy, with a charming heroine surrounded by a cast of friends and family who could turn into villains anytime. The heroine is especially well-done: a pushing sixty, energetic, too quick to say "yes" except to cover up a murder. The book has all the ingredients: smooth writing, absence of trite phrases, deft plot. Maid for Murder doesn't have the sharp wit of Sharyn McCrumb's McPherson series or the self-conscious humor of M.C. Beaton. But it's a faster, smoother read than most others of the genre. Definitely recommended and let's hope we don't have to wait long for the second.

In Book One of this engaging series, "Maid for Murder," Barbara Colley introduces us to Charlotte La Rue, an efficient, often humorous, and effective amateur sleuth. (I'd hire her to clean my house in a flat second, but not if I had any crime-related secrets to hide!) Charlotte is a successful businesswoman, established in her small cleaning company and a real part of the community. By taking the reader along when Charlotte makes her rounds, Ms. Colley gives us a peek into how the upper crust REALLY lives, an insight that only a trusted maid could have. The story is excellent, the plot is intriguing, and Charlotte is simply delightful. I'm looking forward to her further adventures.

Charlotte La Rue needed something to support herself and her infant son when her lover died in Vietnam so she opened up a cleaning service Maid for a Day. Thirty years later, fifty-nine years old Charlotte has expanded the business which operates in the high society section of New Orleans called appropriately the Garden District. She is a good person who tries to keep a relationship with her clients on a business level but sometimes she fails. One of the clients she ends up befriending is Jeanne Duboisson, a rich woman who stays home to take care of her sick mother. Jeanne's husband Jackson is rarely home and rumors come to Charlotte's attention that he is stepping out on Jeanne. When Jackson is found murdered in his own study, Charlotte reluctantly gets drawn into the investigation and to her surprise, she likes trying to figure out who the murderer actually is. MAID FOR MURDER is a lighthearted amateur sleuth novel that bursts with humor yet contains pathos and poignancy. The characters are drawn very true to life and the reader will end up feeling sympathy for the victims as well as the perpetrator. Fans will enjoy Barbara Colley's very good debut novel.Harriet Klausner