For Better or Worse

Ginger Barnes has been working on do-it-yourself projects at her daughter and son-in-law's new home. Surrounding the home are some interesting characters that soon find a way to rope Ginger into their issues. In For Better or Worse by Donna Huston Murray, Ginger has come into her own since the death of her husband. I like her better for that (sorry, I know that is mean, but true).

Despite her husband's disapproval Susan, the mother of a toddler, wants to find a job and she asks Ginger to babysit for the child. Not sure she wants to work that much herself, Ginger agrees, mostly because the toddler Jack is adorable.

On the other side of Chelsea's house, an eccentric older woman, Mrs. Zumstein lives with her grandson. One morning a load of bricks is thrown from the third floor of her house. It's followed by three pops that sound like shots. Unsure whether to call the police, she heads over, finds no answer to her calls and returns to her projects.

Another neighbor with a baby and a possessive husband asks Gin to watch her baby while she takes a

shower. As all new mothers learn, doing small chores become a big problem with a new baby. But things are not right in any of the neighboring houses and Gin becomes uneasy about them, especially after Mrs. Zumstein falls down a flight of stairs and flings accusations at her grandson, who she thinks is her husband.

When Gin learns Susan and her husband Mike have moved from place to place over the past three years she is curious. On blind date with a man named George who turns out to be Susan's father, she learns some disturbing information.

Before she knows it Gin is involved in three dangerous situations and fears for herself and the people involved. This is a tense, taut mystery with lessons for every day living.

For a review of The Mainline is Murder also by Murray, click here. 

Main Line to Murder

The Main Line is Murder by Donna Huston Murray features Ginger Barnes and her family. Ginger's husband has been appointed headmaster of Bryn Derwyn Academy, a prestigious school on Philadelphia's Main Line. The Academy is filled with the children of Philadelphia's high society and trying to fit in for Ginger and her family is difficult.

When Ginger finds the Academy's attorney dead in the Community Room, she is sure it will be trouble for her husband and the Academy's reputation.

Sure enough over the next few days parents begin to keep their children him and Ginger's life is disrupted. Not only is her husband's job in jeopardy, but the family home, which is one of the perks of the Headmaster's position is in peril. Ginger decides to seeks out answers to who wanted Richard Wharton dead and how she can save the Academy and her husband's job.

As Gin begins to unravel the complex relationships at the

Academy and with the donors, she discovers there were many people who would love to see Richard Wharton dead for any number of reasons. When one thread leads to a powerful family, Ginger begins to pull on the thread to discover the killer.

This book had the scariest ending of any book I have read in a long time. If I were Ginger Barnes, I would be afraid to sleep at night.  For more books by this author, click here.