Part of Callahan Garrity Mystery, book 7
First published 1998
Callahan Garrity has her Christmas preparations under control when her brother Brian walks through her door after ten years away. He carries his two-year-old daughter Maura and a confession that he kidnapped the child from his estranged wife. Brian's ex-wife turns up dead in her messy apartment, and the police immediately target him as the prime suspect. Brian vanishes again, abandoning Maura with Callahan and leaving her to prove his innocence without his help. Callahan knows her brother causes trouble wherever he goes, but she refuses to believe he could commit murder. She enlists her cleaning crew from House Mouse and her sharp-tongued mother Edna to investigate the crime. Their search takes them through Atlanta's dangerous street life during the holiday season. Callahan must navigate the legal system, protect her young niece, and uncover the real killer before Christmas arrives. The case tests her loyalty to family against mounting evidence that suggests Brian might be guilty after all.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Atlanta
Period: Christmas
279 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins
Content warnings: kidnapping