A House by the Side of the Road

Expecting some peace in her new home in rural Pennsylvania, Meg Kissinger is upset to learn that an old woman is dead, the girl next door is suspicious, and the flashy tenant who rented Meg's old house has disappeared

In this tantalizing mystery, Chicago's Meg Kessinger transplants herself to rural Pennsylvania upon inheriting a quaint old house. There, she acquires a watchdog in the form of a persistent stray and, unknown to her, a lot of trouble?for among the many secrets harbored by the quiet town of Harrison is one in her new home. Readers know what Meg doesn't: shortly before Meg's arrival, the woman who rented the house was murdered. Although we don't know who the murderer is, we are aware that he will return in search of a damning audiotape that's hidden in the house. Meg makes the acquaintance of realtor Mike Mulcahy, who also had inherited property from a relative, Hannah Ehrlich, an apparent heart attack victim. Meg's neighbors, the Ruschmans, provide her with friendship as well as the opportunity to coach a Little League team. But someone keeps searching her home, and a suspicious Meg determines to discover both the whereabouts of the previous tenant and the real cause of Hannah's death. Meg basks in the attentions of Mulcahy and another admirer, Jack Deutsch, but events and her probings propel her toward a life-threatening finale. Gleiter (Lie Down with Dogs, 1997) adds an edge of danger to the comforts of small-town life by making the most of the prickly sensation that comes with suspecting that a stranger is in the house.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fleeing an unsuitable relationship back in Chicago, where her noncommittal boyfriend seemed to be fleeing her, freelance writer Meg Kessigner is happy to have a refuge: her late great-aunt Hannah Ehrlich's house in sheltered Harrison, PA. Despite the attractiveness of the old-fashioned kitchen and the warmth of her neighbor Christine Ruschman and Christine's 12-year-old daughter Jane, Meg would be a lot less sanguine about swapping Chicago for bucolic Harrison if she knew that Angie Morrison, the no-account tenant who'd been living in the house ever since Hannah died, didn't renew her lease because she was murdered, and there's an excellent chance that Hannah was helped to her grave too. Instead of worrying about the mortality rate at her address, Meg concentrates at first on refinishing the kitchen floor, coaching Little League baseball, training a stray dog she's taken in, and conducting dalliances with two eligible bachelors--carpenter/painter Jack Deutsch, and Michael Mulcahy, Hannah's nephew and executor--one of whom is obviously the killer (for how else could Meg decide which one to stay with?). It's a tribute to Gleiter (Lie Down with Dogs, 1996) that she not only keeps you guessing about both men but keeps you absorbed in Meg's domestic rituals as she's slowly immersing her in the mystery. An appealingly low-key idyll, even if the menace, like Meg, takes its time settling in. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.