Want a NOOK? Explore Now
The Gift and Home show provides fertile ground for intrigue and feuds, but murder is most unexpected.
Heather McNeil is assistant to the director of the Washington, D.C., Market Show Center and is very good at her job, especially fixing problems and listening to complaints, but finding a body is outside her job description. With the help of a newly hired security person, the mysterious former cop and current hunk Scott Brandon, she becomes a reluctant sleuth. The murdered man was an unfaithful husband and a partner in a business that may soon be merging with another. The police suspect the wife, but Heather has a feeling the murder is rooted in his business activities. While dealing with malfunctioning popcorn machines, suspicious exhibitor activities and misplaced shipments, she also has to worry that her investigation will cost her the job she loves.
A new cozy from the prolific McCullough introduces a charming heroine while providing a behind-the-scenes look at trade shows and a nice little mystery to solve.
In Washington DC as the Commerce & Market Show Center employees prepare for the always difficult Gift and Decorations trade show, office assistant Heather McNeil finds a corpse in the dumpster. Someone bashed exhibitor Tim Bethel with a crowbar that remains imbeded in the deceased. Heather calls the police.
Police Detective Peter Gilmont investigates the homicide. He wonders who would have had the motive and opportunity to kill the co-owner of Grantwood & Bethel; one of the firms displaying their gifts and accessories at the show. At the same time Heather and her maybe boyfriend new employer as a Center security guard Scott Brandon make their own inquiry ignoring the objections of Gilmont, Heather's superior Janelle Addison and the exhibitors including the deceased's partner Stan Greenwood.
This Market Center Murders tale is an engaging tale that contains competing solid investigations and a fabulous look deep into what goes on behind the scenes to insure a successful trade show. Heather is an enticing protagonist who anchors the story line and the trade show as a cynical stable influence in the midst of chaos. The vivid glimpse at the trade show environs steals the plot from the whodunit whose spins and twists readers will anticipate in this charming cozy.
Harriet Klausner
Overview
For fifty-one weeks of the year, Heather McNeil loves her job as assistant to the director of the Washington DC Market Show Center. But the Gift and Home trade show, the biggest show of the year at the center, is a week-long nightmare. This year’s version is worse than usual. Misplaced shipments, feuding ...