Mom Meets Her Maker

Not only was Dave's mother a great cook, but she had an amazing knack -- between the chopped liver and the strudel -- for solving his most difficult murder cases. Possibly because no detail, no matter how trivial, ever escaped that rattrap brain of hers. — When the Reverend Chuck Candy is found dead three days before Christmas, it's more than ill-timed murder. It's a complex case of religious fanaticism, illicit affairs and small-town bigotry. Dave -- an investigator for the public defender -- believes an innocent man is being framed. And he knows only one person in Mesa Grande, Colorado, can untangle the web of unlikely connections and sinister intentions: Mom.

This swift and engrossing mystery brings back two multifaceted characters introduced in Jaffe's first novel, A Nice Murder for Mom : Dave, a middle-aged former New York detective on the homicide squad, now working for the public defender in Mesa Grande, Colo., and his mother, 75, who moved with him in order to supply meals, love and sage advice. When charismatic, beloved Reverend Chuck Candy is found shot to death, suspicion falls on his next-door neighbor Roger Meyer. Dave and his boss, public defender Ann Swenson, are called in to defend him. Roger seems to be guilty; he has already made himself heartily disliked in the small town by asking the reverend to tone down his noisy and extravagant Christmas display that was disturbing Roger's elderly parents. With the help of Dave's mom's shrewd hunches and uncanny intuition, Ann and Dave deftly work their way through some bigoted townspeople, an uncooperative and hostile district attorney, and a key (but erratic) eyewitness before ferreting out the truth. Mom, dispensing advice along with her pot roast, is invaluable. This book is carefully plotted, leaves ample clues, yet manages several surprises.
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