Shamus in a Skirt (Maggie Sullivan mysteries, #4)

by M. Ruth Myers

Overview

When a man offers 1940s private investigator Maggie Sullivan twice her usual fee to look into a "possible" jewelry theft from his hotel safe, she’s skeptical — until a maid’s body tumbles out of a trash can and a jeweler known for high quality fakes is murdered.

Does a hotel guest who vanished without a trace hold a piece of the puzzle?  Or does it have to do with the Polish count and his family fleeing the start of WW2 in Europe?  Could the cops be right that it’s all a trick devised by her client?

More at ease in Dayton, Ohio’s, streets and alleyways than in the posh Hotel Canterbury, and chafing under the need to hide her true occupation, Maggie threads her way through an unfamiliar array of suspects: Celluloid luminaries in town for a hush-hush project; an international Lothario whose shady local past she unearths; the count’s embittered valet.

Meanwhile, preparations for a visit by FDR preoccupy the city’s police.  The Irish cop who long has wooed Maggie suddenly departs for Chicago.  Alone and bruised, Maggie faces adversaries whose motives stun her... and a killer who will stop at nothing.

A dash of humor leavens this historical mystery series with its early 20th century hard-boiled atmosphere and a flinty detective who wields her Smith & Wesson as skillfully as her emery board.  Previous Maggie Sullivan mysteries are No Game for a Dame, Tough Cookie, Don’t Dare a Dame, and two short stories.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940152314540
Publisher:	Tuesday House
Publication date:	09/23/2015
Series:	Maggie Sullivan Mystery Series , #4
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	251,300
File size:	519 KB

About the Author

M. Ruth Myers received a Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America for Don’t Dare a Dame, the third book in her Maggie Sullivan mysteries series.  The series follows a woman P.I. in Dayton, OH, from the end of the Great Depression through the end of WW2.

Other novels by Myers, in various genres, have been translated, optioned for film and condensed for magazine publication.  Some were written under the name Mary Ruth Myers.   She has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri J-School.  Prior to becoming a novelist, she worked on daily papers in Wyoming, Michigan and Ohio.  She also spent five years working as a ventriloquist.

The author and her husband live in Ohio.  When not writing, she plays Irish traditional tunes on the concertina with more enthusiasm than skill.  (Then again, how many people do you know who even play the concertina?)