Dorothy Cannell: Mum's the Word (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
In her latest mystery treat the award-winning author of The Thin Woman and The Widows Club dishes up a deliciously wicked soufflé of suspense, motherhood -- and of course -- murder... .

MUM'S THE WORD
Several pounds heavier -- and gaining -- blissful mother-to-be Ellie Haskell knows her days as a thin woman are numbered. Time to let out her clothes, put up her feet, and prepare to enjoy the next nine months as a pampered wife. But the first pangs of morning sickness have barely passed when Ellie's handsome husband, Ben, is invited to compete for membership in the world's most exclusive secret society of chefs, and suddenly Ellie finds herself whisked off to America -- to Mud Creek, Illinois -- and to a gothic mansion straight out of a horror movie.

Immortalized years ago in a Hollywood film starring a sexy actress who happens to have the leading role in this season's bestselling exposé, Monster Mommy, Melancholy Mansion is no place for a woman in Ellie's delicate condition. Within its shadowy confines, danger lurks behind every chafing dish. And when murder is suddenly added to the menu, it falls to amateur sleuth Ellie to serve up an unsavory killer with a taste for foul play.

"Witty." -- Daily News, New York
"Offers everything Cannell's fans have come to expect... a wonderfully dotty cast of characters, an unerring sense of the absurd, and witty dialogue and insights." -- The Denver Post

Dorothy Cannell: Mum's the Word. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0553286862 (July, 1991), 263 p., $4.99.

Dorothy Cannell: Mum's the Word (UK 1991)

From the Publisher:
Everything is coming up roses for amateur sleuth Ellie when she discovers she's with child and entitled to nine months of pampering by handsome Ben, her husband of just one year. But before she can put her feet up and let her clothes out, Ben is invited to compete for membership in the world's most exclusive secret society of chefs, the Mangé Society in - of all places - America.

At first, Ellie has no intention of travelling anywhere in her condition. But fate intervenes in time-honoured fashion - with a gypsy curse, dutifully delivered by the Misses Hyacinth and Primrose Tramwell. To avoid a fate most dreadful, it seems that Ellie and Ben must retreat to the far-off shores of the Colonies. Yet when they arrive, they discover that the very hush-hush proceedings of the Mangé Society are being held in a house straight out of a horror movie, the famous Melancholy Mansion. For Ellie, this gothic estate on a lonely river island may be the place where her worst nightmares come true: where every day the 'thin woman' puts on pounds as she becomes an ungainly expectant mum; where a svelte, gorgeous 'other' woman is cooking up a scheme to steal her husband; and where someone is spicing up her stay with an unsavoury ingredient... murder!

Dorothy Cannell: Mum's the Word. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0593022394 (May, 1991), 294 p., £13.99.