The Importance of Being Ernestine: An Ellie Haskell Mystery Hardcover – January 1, 2002
by Dorothy Cannell 
 
Ellie Haskell becomes unwittingly drawn into a mystery with her moonlighting housekeeper when a modish matriarch reports that the surviving daughter of a late ex-employee may be seeking revenge by killing off her mother's former employers and their descendants. 20,000 first printing.
 
From Publishers Weekly
In her dozenth delight, Agatha nominee Cannell dishes up a dizzy spoof of American hard-boiled private-eye fiction (after 2001's Bridesmaids Revisited). Ellie Haskell attempts a surprise for her husband, Ben, by redecorating his study, but when her gift seemingly bombs, she seeks comfort and wisdom from her worldly daily, Mrs. Roxy Malloy. Mrs. Malloy has been moonlighting as Girl Friday to a local PI, "Milk" Jugg, and Ellie's nocturnal visit to Jugg's office coincides with the appearance of a new client, Lady Krumley. Mrs. Malloy graciously allows Ellie to act as her assistant in Jugg's absence, and they plunge fearlessly and fecklessly into Lady Krumley's case. Many years widowed, Lady Krumley once sacked a parlor maid, Flossie, whom she suspected of having stolen a valuable brooch. Flossie also managed to get herself in the family way while at Moultty Towers, and later expired from tuberculosis while trying to care for herself and her daughter, Ernestine. With her dying breath, Flossie cursed the Krumley family, and various Krumleys have recently shuffled off the mortal coil in amusingly eccentric ways. Lady Krumley wants to find the missing Ernestine and right ancient wrongs, hoping to avert any further mysterious accidents. Using Ellie's cover as an interior designer, the two gumshoes besiege the denizens of Moultty Towers, and the game is afoot. Cannell orchestrates plenty of laughs along with a clever plot, merrily winking at readers as she pokes fun at numerous genre conventions.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Series sleuth Ellie Haskell (Bridesmaids Revisited) teams up with Mrs. Malloy, her housekeeper, when they bump into a private detective's intended client. Wealthy old Lady Krumley believes that the illegitimate daughter of a parlor maid wrongfully dismissed 30 years ago has begun killing members of the Krumley family in revenge. Totally charming.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ellie Haskell, Cannell's sleuth, is part Miss Marple, part modern British mum with an interior decorating business on the side. Here she is teamed with her gloriously low housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, who also has a part-time gig--at a detective agency. When Lady Krumely comes to the agency looking for help (the detective is conveniently on holiday), Ellie and Mrs. Malloy take the case. Is someone really killing off Lady Krumely's elderly relatives or are they just, well . . . old? Or could the deaths have something to with the curse Flossie the parlor maid put on the family for tossing her out after she got pregnant by Lady Krumely's husband? As in previous installments of this popular series, Cannell pushes the British cozy into the contemporary world but without sacrificing such dear conventions as gathering the suspects in the drawing room before the murderer is revealed. This one's got it all, wit, charm, a pair of sprightly sleuths. Carolyn Mulac
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
This is Dorothy Cannell's twelfth mystery. Her others include Bridesmaids Revisited, The Trouble with Harriet, The Spring Cleaning Murders, The Thin Woman, Down the Garden Path, and the Agatha Award nominee The Widows' Club.
 
3.5