Once a Thief

Ramey Burke and her sister Portia Carruthers live in Plainview, Missouri. The sisters are the daughters of former Police Chief Bill Patterson. Nothing much happens to Ramey until one morning. There on her doorstep are three seventy plus year old visitors. Only these visitors happen to be family. Her maternal Uncles Ed and Archie and her Aunt Melba Jane, also known as the Other Dillinger Gang. Ramey's geriatric relatives have just been released from prison after serving thirty four years. It seems that the trio had taken a liking to relieving banks of their money. The Burke household settles in to a routine. Ed and Archie busy themselves with much need repairs while Melba Jane took over the cooking. A discovery one night changed everything. Returning from one of his nocturnal wanderings, Ed finds a body by the driveway. Ed fears he, his brother or Melba Jane will be accused because they are ex-cons. He drags the body out back placing it underneath a brush pile. Ed is unaware the he is observed from the house by his brother. While Ed returns through the front of the house, Archie goes out the back. This time Archie places the renains in a trench out back. As he re-enters the house and goes upstairs to their bedroom, Melba Jane exits the house. Now it is her turn to once more trsansport the victim. She wraps the body in an old rug and drags it to the curb for the garbage man to pick up. This final disposal brings to Ramey's door Detective Sergeant Mike Constantine. Uncle Ed becomes the primary suspect since he was the first person seen dragging the corspe out back. Mike takes Ed in for questioning. Before the two leave for the station, Ramey calls her brother-in-law Preston Carruthers to represent Ed. He is not a trial lawyer but Ramey figures he is better than nothing. Sergeant Constantine learns nothing from the old man and soon releases him. Ed is not the only suspect. There is Don Blevins who wants to be more than a friend to Ramey but she rebuffed him. Also Howard Chinn, the victim's stepson who stands to inherit from a life insurance policy. And of coarse there are the Other Dillinger Gang members. Through some good detective work, Constantine collars the murder and the motive behind the killing. Suzann Ledbetter gives us a light hearted mystery that makes you want to curl up in your favorite chair to read the day and night away. She must have had a good time writing ONCE A THIEF because I enjoyed reading it as I chuckled my way through it.

In Plainfield, "home stager" Ramey Burke knows she is all alone as she has been for a few years since her spouse and parents are gone and her living relatives are behind bars. Though feeling overweight, Ramey likes her current serene lifestyle in which she is involved with no one except clients when she finalizes the clean up of a house before it is placed in sale. That is she was all alone, but now the state has freed elderly Aunt Melba Jane and Uncles Ed and Archie, who move in with Ramey. The Dillinger trio enjoys discussing the good old days of professionally robbing banks, which Ramey finds appalling and fascinating. However, when Ramey finds a corpse of a colleague of her live in relatives, the Plainfield police immediate suspect the Dillinger trio killed the victim. Ramey knows her felonious relatives would never murder anyone so she begins to investigate. That makes lead police detective Mike Constantine worried for her safety though he welcomes her intelligence and insight as she proves more than capable as a sleuth and definitely kissable though the case comes first. ONCE A THIEF is an amusing lighthearted romantic mystery starring likable lead characters and her zany relatives. The whodunit is fun to follow as Mike realizes quickly that Ramey is more than just an asset on the case as he uses her help almost as much to keep her safe as for her insight. Suzann Ledbetter writes a comical wacky tale that her fans will fully appreciate. Harriet Klausner