Gertrude, Gumshoe: Murder at Goodwill

Merrill’s second comic mystery featuring a curmudgeonly sleuth (after Introducing Gertrude, Gumshoe) is even funnier than her first. Gertrude, who lives in Mattawooptock, Maine, stumbles upon a murder victim during what should be a routine shopping trip to the local Goodwill to buy Christmas presents. After picking up gifts for her niece and nephew, she heads to the perfume section, only to find a young woman’s bludgeoned corpse next to the murder weapon—an ugly lamp adorned with decorative birds. But by the time a crowd has gathered in response to her scream, the lamp has disappeared. Gertrude manages to get hired at the Goodwill so that she can search for the missing weapon and learn more about the victim, 25-year-old Tislene Breen, who was unemployed and unmarried. Gertrude is as comically inept at sorting donated items as she is at most everything else. Readers who enjoy tongue-in-cheek whodunits will find themselves grinning frequently. [em](BookLife) [/em]