Merry Jones, The Nanny Murders

Merry Jones, The Nanny Murders - Zoe Hayes lives in the Queen Village neighborhood of Philadelphia with her five-year-old adopted daughter Molly. It is an ethnically-mixed neighborhood caught between gentrification and stagnation, a place where she knows most of her neighbors and feels secure. That security is destroyed the day Molly plays in the snow and finds a woman's chopped off, nail polished finger. The police think that the digit belongs to one of the nannies who have recently disappeared from the neighborhood.

Detective Nick Stiles is in charge of the case and asks Zoe to look at the profile psychologist Beverly Gardner prepared. She believes that "The Nannynapper" is someone who lives or works in the neighborhood. She agrees to help out because as an art therapist for the mentally disturbed and having familiarity with the neighborhood, she might have insights that Beverly missed. Little did she know that her decision would gain her a lover, involve her in a hostage situation, cause her to be chased by a killer and kidnapped by someone she thought of as a friend.

Merry Jones' debut fiction thriller is absolutely fantastic, a novel with so many unexpected twists and turns that readers will feel like they are on a fast merry-go-round. This is a character driven who-done-it with plenty of action so THE NANNY MURDERS will appeal to a wide range of readers. The protagonist seems realistic; the neighbor next door one might visit to borrow a cup of sugar (or for the Atkins crowd - a pack of calorie free sweetener) and stay for coffee because she is so friendly.

Harriet Klausner