Author Description

SENIOR SLEUTHS, BLOODY MARYS, AND BOTH KINDS OF FAT CATS... Not since Dorothy L. Sayers' Murder Must Advertise has there been a more perfect cozy office murder mystery -- and not since Agatha Christie's immortal Miss Marple has a more loveable geriatric sleuth been spawned. Gallagher Gray's first Hubbert and Lil mystery's got it all -- a stuffy old firm with stuffy old routines disturbed by a few unaccustomed murders, a hilariously apoplectic boss, the indispensable brace of cats, and a clever amateur sleuths of a certain age. Break out the tea and cookies to welcome T.S. Hubbert and his unforgettable Auntie Lil! T.S. tells the story (and very wittily too), but it's Lil who steals the show. She's eighty-four years young, with a taste for Bloody Marys at any time of day, a fine-tuned appreciation of life's other pleasures, and a remarkable talent for detecting. It begins, as so many things do, with a phone call: T.S. ("Theodore" to Auntie Lil) has been retired about eight hours when he's summoned back to Sterling & Sterling, the bank where he served as personnel manager for most of his adult life. One of the bigwigs is lying stabbed to death in the Partner's Room and his demanding former boss, forgetting he's no longer T.S.'s boss, is demanding a favor: damage control.Well, that's certainly more interesting, thinks Theodore, than "interviewing the slack-jawed sons of clients." And besides, now he can talk back to the brass. He can even dress like it's casual Friday and no one can say a word. Although they do. A big part of the fun's watching him shock his former colleagues with his sudden assertiveness. Because who can boss around a person who's doing a favor? Who can fire someone who's already retired? What starts out as damage control quickly evolves into full-scale detecting as more and more partners bite the big one in unexpected ways. Aunt Lil's all over it from the first, demonstrating not only the necessary