Infra Dig

Consumed by guilt after backing her car over her burdensome father-in-law, widowed Susan Nebens panics and hides the body in a bag full of grass clippings, thus beginning a bizarre adventure involving two hoods on the lam. 12,500 first printing. $10,000 ad/promo.

In this darkly humorous situation comedy/mystery, the question is not "whodunit?" but "who will take the blame?" Lonely, 40-ish widow Susan Nebens nurses her wheelchair-bound father-in-law, Fred, a morbid old geezer who is fond of telling others how badly Susan wants to be rid of him. One unfortunate day, Susan puts her car in reverse and accidentally backs over Fred, killing him. Worried that the authorities will think she flattened him on purpose, she tells her friends that he is missing, stashes his body in a bag and plans to dispose of him in a dumpster. Fate intervenes: Susan's car, the body hidden inside, is stolen by two slow-witted ex-cons. The hoods decide to bribe her; a cop who is partial to young widows speculates that Fred is the victim of a mob hit; and a naive journalist devoted to the elderly blunders dangerously close to the truth. McInerny's ( Easeful Death ) success here turns on his alarmingly obtuse characters and their slapstick interaction. Never slack, this smoothly written, amusing story careens to a neat resolution.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One of the author's occasional dark-tinged tragicomedies (Easeful Death, etc.), this one dealing with the trials of youngish widow Susan Nebens, left alone to cope with her ailing, spiteful father-in-law Fred. One day Susan accidentally backs her car over him and makes the irrational decision to hide the body and declare him missing. Enter Police Lieutenant Paul Morley and sidekick Wayne, along with Chicago reporter Amanda Tracy and Fred's longtime admirer Amy Rordam. Meanwhile, Susan's efforts to dispose of the corpse are foiled when her car, complete with plastic-bagged body, is stolen by a couple of small-time hoods. An interminable series of farcical incidents brings Fred to his final rest--and the reader to total ennui. A far cry from the author's Father Dowling stories, yet a harmless aberration from an author who rarely disappoints. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.