Dorothy Cannell: The Trouble with Harriet (USA 2017)

From the Publisher:
In a murder mystery so charming it could only have come from Dorothy Cannell-hailed by Nancy Pickard as "America's P. G. Wodehouse"
Ellie Haskell is shocked when her long-lost father shows up on her doorstep with some rather... compromising baggage.

Ellie Haskell and her husband, Ben, haven't taken a vacation in years. Now their suitcases are packed, their tickets are booked, and they're ready for a romantic getaway in France. But everything goes awry after a chain-smoking fortune teller makes a dire prediction: "Take that trip at your peril!" Those ominous words ring true when Ellie's prodigal father, Morley, suddenly appears with the remains of his ladylove, Harriet, whose untimely death in a car accident has left him bereft.

But after Morley loses the urn in a bizarre series of events, Harriet's family is furious. Now a bewildered Ellie finds herself asks some probing questions: Who or what was in that urn? Could her father be a pawn in a deadly game? And what exactly is the meaning of that darn prophecy? Ellie just hopes she lives to find out whether the answers are worth the trouble.

Dorothy Cannell: The Trouble with Harriet. An Ellie Haskell Mystery. Random House Publishing Group, ISBN: 9780399180408 (June, 2017), eBook, 1 MB (ca. 292 p.), $7.99.

Dorothy Cannell: The Trouble with Harriet (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Ellie Haskell and her husband, Ben, haven't had a vacation in years. Now their bags are packed, and they're ready to set off for a romantic getaway to France. But things go awry when a chain-smoking gypsy approaches Ellie with a dire prediction: "Take that trip at your peril!" Those ominous words ring true when her prodigal father Morley suddenly appears with an urn containing the remains of his ladylove, Harriet, whose untimely death in a car accident has left him bereft.

When Morley loses the urn in a bizarre series of events, Harriet's family is furious, and a bewildered Ellie asks some probing questions: What exactly is in that urn? Is her father a pawn in a deadly game? Is this what the gypsy had foreseen? The answers are hilariously revealed in a caper so charming it could only have come from Dorothy Cannell.

Dorothy Cannell: The Trouble with Harriet. An Ellie Haskell Mystery. Penguin, ISBN: 0140291822 (June, 2000), 278 p., $5.99.

Dorothy Cannell: The Trouble with Harriet (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
"If there's anybody funnier than Dorothy Cannell," says Nancy Pickard, "I don't want to meet her until my sides stop aching."
Ellie Haskell is in dire need of a vacation. Life has become increasingly hectic of late, with her busy work as an interior designer on top of taking care of the twins and baby Rose, and her husband Bentley's bustling café business. In fact, Ben and Ellie haven't had a holiday in years. But today their bags are packed for a long-awaited trip to France. With blissful daydreams of her romantic getaway dancing in her head, Ellie sets off to do some last-minute errands. Imagine her distress when she encounters a chain-smoking Gypsy who warns her, "Take that trip at your peril!"

Trying to shake off her feelings of foreboding, Ellie returns home -- but she is barely in the door when Ben stops her dead in her tracks: "Ellie. You have a surprise visitor." It is her prodigal father, Morley Simons, returning after many years. Far from greeting her with a face wreathed in smiles, Morley is sobbing into a hanky. And he soon shockingly reveals that he has more in his luggage than a spare set of underwear.

Morley comes toting the ashes of his platinum blond lady love, Harriet -- a femme fatale who has become a highway fatality. He's promised to return the urn containing her mortal remains to her relatives, who duly show up to receive the unwelcome news that Harriet has been temporarily misplaced. When another accident makes Morley a murder suspect, Ellie begins to question the urn's contents and must ask herself: Is he a pawn in a deadly game? Is this what the Gypsy had foreseen?

Ellie can't even count on help from her usual assistants this time -- it seems the whole town, Cousin Freddy and housekeeper Mrs. Malloy included, are too busy honing their acting skills for Kathleen Ambleforth's original production of Murder Most Fowl.

So Ellie is on her own, and she soon discovers that love can be a very dangerous thing.

This is DoroTHY CANNELL's tenth mystery. Her others include The Spring Cleaning Murders, The Thin Woman, Down the Garden Path, and the Agatha Award nominee The Widows Club. Born in England, she now lives in Peoria, Illinois.

Dorothy Cannell: The Trouble with Harriet. An Ellie Haskell Mystery. Viking, ISBN: 0670886297 (May, 1999), 274 p., $21.95