Loren Schechter

Murder in Millbrook Loren Schechter Lrg edition

Murder in Millbrook is a light-hearted mystery which asks how well one really knows one?s friends and neighbors. Abandoned by an unfaithful husband, Addie Carter has raised four children in the 42 years she?s lived next door to dentist Herbert Elwood and his late wife Janet in Millbrook, Massachusetts. Now she is living as peacefully as her delinquent cat Flash will allow. But after Addie finds Herbert brutally murdered, there?s not a moment?s peace to be had. Everyone believes Addie knows more than she does. Or they want something from her ? want it badly enough to ransack her house and hurt her cat. Addie thinks her small town?s bird-watching detective has the intelligence and sensitivity of a trash compactor. Even the victim?s three adult children would rather confide in their ?Aunt? Addie than in the police, but that doesn?t seem right -- what are they hiding? Certainly no more than the phony private investigator who demands the keys to Herbert?s house, the auto mechanic with a gang connection and a grudge, or even the multi-millionaire who jilted her years ago and now is going after her daughter and Herbert?s land. With the help of her policeman son George, her flamboyant friend Bella, and Joe Kearney, a would-be boyfriend were she to regain her trust in men, Addie plunges into the investigation. But playing detective isn?t Addie?s cup of tea, especially when she and Bella are run off the road, warned off by a paranoid and stunned by the suicide of a suspect. With her views of neighbors, friends and enemies turning upside down, Addie must even look at herself in a new light.