Relative Danger

Cealie Gunther is a widow and the owner of a successful business called Deluxe Copyediting Agency with offices spread out in different cities. She has the time and money to follow her own whims without the conventional bindings that might otherwise keep her from going in search of herself.

Even the allure of her previous love interest Gil Thurman, the sexy owner of a chain of restaurants called Cajun Delights, and his particular brand of delicacies were not enough to change this woman’s mind.

Her granddaughter’s impending high school graduation brings Cealie to Chicago for a visit with her long grieving widower son Roger and their honor roll student Kat. There she discovers that her death bed promise to take the place of her daughter-in-law to watch Kat graduate is at risk.

The recent and suspicious death of one of the school janitors has the authorities focusing their attentions on Ms. Marissa Hernandez. Since this kind teacher has been something of a mentor/friend to Kat, the whole situation has the young lady rethinking whether she cares to even make the effort for the final leg to graduation.

What is a concerned Gramma to do except to step in and do a little investigating of her own in a bid to save the day? Thank heavens for coincidences. Gil is in town to open one of his restaurants. Even a year after the break up she is still darned tempted by the man and his Delights. After all, sleuthing requires support and sustenance.

This little mystery is a bit of clean fun handled in a more mature woman chick lit style. It invites you to share the ups and downs of a sexy grandmother determined to keep her freedom while exploring exactly what she wants from life. That the freedom she clings to so dearly does not always seem to fulfill her wants is an aside to what she feels compelled to do.

Our Cealie is a bit flighty, naïve, and quirky on the one hand, and loving, loyal and determined on the other. Some readers may find our heroine to be more eccentric than they would prefer.

The mystery and the solving of it are written in a round about way with tenuous connections made and plenty of superfluous details to keep one off-balance. That much of the nosing around takes place by Cealie becoming a substitute teacher for Kat’s school, Sidmore High, gives rise to some humorous and some disconcerting views of the young people of today.

One of the things that is really striking in regards to this story was the relationships amongst the three generations of the family and their sometimes difficult dealings with each other. The walking on eggshells around concerns and the inevitable missteps that occur were pretty realistic.

As for Gil, it is hard to see how Cealie could resist grabbing onto such a kind-hearted wonderful guy and never letting go. His patience and ways of wooing certainly will win over readers.

RELATIVE DANGER is a light amusing mystery that would be good for a rainy afternoon sitting in a comfortable nook with a mug of something hot to warm the hands.

December 2006