The Girl in White Pajamas

by Chris Birdy, Erika Baert (Illustrator)

Overview

When Officer Bud the PR face of the Boston Police Department is gunned down, his brother, Bogie McGruder, returns from Palm Beach for the funeral. Since the BPD is investigating the death of one of their own, Bogie believes his trip to Boston will be a short condolence visit and a chance to meet his secret love child. But interacting with a family fueled by alcohol and mired in scandals, Bogie is reminded why he does investigations for his Boston based company from a computer in Florida.
Although Bogie wants to contact his ex-lover, Bailey Hampfield, he's reluctant to do so since Bailey dumped him four years earlier. Knowing that Bailey had his child after she cut him loose, Bogie ponders how he can establish a relationship with the three year old daughter he's never met. While he thinks about it, Bailey gets in touch with him and asks for protection. Someone is trying to kill her.
By the time Bogie meets Isabella, it's apparent that he still loves the mother and adores the child.
Bogie tells himself that he's not interested in the BPD investigation into Bud's death, but he continues to be drawn into it while trying to discover who is attempting to kill Bailey. The investigations seem to parallel each other, then intersect and become intertwined. As the story develops, Isabella, a precocious child obsessed with martial arts, slowly becomes the focus.
The underlying theme of this mystery is lies. Everyone seems to be running on lies and half truths. The only pure and true character is The Girl in White Pajamas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481871983
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	03/22/2013
Pages:	426
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Chris Birdy was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, she did a four year stint in the Middle East. When she returned to the States, Chris settled down in the Boston area and became a true Bostonian by collecting college degrees while raising a family.
For more than twenty years, Chris has been a member of the legal community performing investigative work for Boston law firms.
Chris lives outside of Boston and in Palm Beach, Florida with her husband.

Editorial Reviews

2014-01-02
Multiple generations of dysfunction catch up to a once-prominent Boston police family in Birdy's elaborate debut mystery. The McGruder clan affirms the second half of the Leo Tolstoy aphorism from Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Boghdun, known as "Bogie," is the middle-aged, rejected scion of the once-elite family. He's also an Army vet whose background includes childhood abuse and, later, romantic heartbreak. When someone murders his despised half brother, Bogie returns to Boston from Palm Springs, Calif., and reluctantly begins uncovering his family's involvement in the case. He's soon on a collision course with the former love of his life, who happens to be raising his 3-year-old daughter. Much of the strength of this solidly written thriller lies in the interconnectedness of its large cast of characters. The McGruder family harbors more than one skeleton in its closet, and each emerges accompanied by a few new characters who add to the drama. The mystery is as much about getting to the bottom of past wrongs as it is about solving the most recent crime. As a result, however, the momentum sometimes stalls, particularly during the middle third, when the central storyline fades out in favor of a long series of largely uneventful family moments. Other scenes stagnate when characters recollect past events that readers have already read about. That said, the author moderates such lulls with vivid descriptions, which effectively portray Boston and its rambling downtown streets in all their winter chill. Most of the characters are likewise believable with the notable exception of Bogie's precocious 3-year-old, who manages a number of improbable feats for her age. An often engaging dramatic mystery with involving characters.

Kirkus Reviews