Suzanne Price, Scene of the Grime

Scene of the Grime

Suzanne Price

Signet, June 2007, $6.99, 288 pp.

ISBN 0451221095

After she lost her husband to cancer, Sky Taylor left the big city to return home to Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts, where she writes a cleaning tips column for the Cape Ann newspaper. She applies those same tips to clean homes, offices and bungalows in the area; because she is such a perfectionist, she is in demand. In the time she has lived there she has made friends with Abel Monahan who also has a residence in Florida.

While she is cleaning the hallway outside Abe's room, Sky sees a hand print on the wall she hears his cat screaming. She opens the door and sees his dead body on the floor, blood still dripping from the blow to his head. She doesn't understand why anyone would kill such a dear old man who also cared about her nor does she know why two men staying in Abe's room are giving her the creeps especially or why they are following her around town. The newspaper reporter who has shown interest in her thinks he has answers if she believes him, but believing him will mean she never really knew Abe at all.

Readers will thoroughly enjoy SCENES OF THE GRIME (use the title is humorous), a rich focus on a heroine who compulsively cleans until everything shines. She is a special person and other characters as well as readers sense she is genuine. This is a delightful, sassy tale filled with eccentric, interesting characters that add to the whodunit. Told from Sky's perspective, readers learn a lot of cleaning tips that are not supposed to be used at a murder scene like she does. Suzanne Price provides a delightful grime cleaning (make that crime cleaning) amateur sleuth.

Harriet Klausner