Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill

Book Details
Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill
Paperback, 256 pages
1992, Avon
ISBN: 0380764008
Series: Book 1 in the Jane Jeffry series

Synopsis
It's So hard to Kill Good Help These Days. . .

With three kids to raise on her own, Jane Jeffry sometimes needs a hand with the housework. But many of her complaining neighbors believe that the Happy Helper cleaning lady they all share wouldn't know a dustball if she was choking on it. That hardly seems reason enough, however, to do the disreputable domestic in.

So when the charwoman in question is discovered strangled to death with a vacuum cleaner cord, Jane decides to dig up the real dirt--if the tenacious single mom can find any time to spare between her PTA meetings and car-pooling duties. But despite her busy schedule, Jane is determined to tidy up the whole murderous mess--even if it means provoking a killer who may live as close as next door.

Review
I really enjoy the Jane Jeffry novels by Jill Churchill. I haven't been able to read them in order. This is the first in the series and it was really nice to be able to see how some of the themes that are in every subsequent novel came to be. All of the books in this series are nice, easy, cozy mysteries but this one was a bit weaker than the rest. As a first novel, it was to be expected, but reading some of Churchill's later works first really made it all the more obvious. It couldn't stand up against her newer novels.

Rating

Links

Jill Churchill's website