Carpet Diem

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Oh Tallulah how do you get yourself into such messes? Oh did I give away your secret real name. Who names their daughter Tallulah Graver - sounds like a B actress. In Carpet Diem by Misty Simon, Tallie is competing for a mansion cleaning job with the newly arrived Audra McNeal. Audra is not your typical cleaner. She is glamorous and has a fancy manicure. How does she clean houses? (Carpet Diem will be released by Kensington Publishers on September 24). 

Tallie had hoped she an Audra could be friends even though they were competitors for the cleaning jobs. Audra seemed like a friendly person and she was newly engaged, but Preston Prescott liked to pit them against each other, especially in front of his aunt.

Preston, Mrs. Petrovski's entitled nephew, had been a classmate of Tallie's in high school. They never got along then, and it was worse now. For some reason the owner of the mansion, Mrs. Petrovski, had set up this competition for the job. Preston had become a thorn in Tallie's side. He is enamored with Audra and even takes to sabotaging the room Tallie is cleaning, so Audra can win the contract.

Not one to leave until she manages to clean up his mess, Tallie discovers a carpet in the dumpster and wrapped in the carpet is the lovely Audra, who is very dead. Fortunately Tallie is able to reach the police before a big truck from the trash collecting service rolls into the driveway. She persuades them not to take the dumpster and waits for her cousin Matt to show up.

As Tallie digs deeper into Audra's life she finds some unsavory facts and wonders who could have killed her. Another entertaining book from Misty Simon.