Bundle of Trouble-Diana Orgain

Bundle of Trouble
Diana Orgain
Berkley, Aug 2009, $6.99
ISBN 9780425229248

In San Francisco, office manager Kate Connolly takes a leave of absence to give birth to Laurie. However, mom and daughter connect instantly and Kate asks herself how she is going to return to work in six weeks when this bundle of joy calls to her to stay with her. Her spouse Jim reminds Kate that they live in a double income city.

The police pull out of the Bay the corpse of a murdered male whom the medical examiner thought might be Jim’s estranged brother, George; his bags were on the pier nearby. Jim gives information to the ME, which proves the victim is not his brother. Instead Brad Avery was fished from the water. Brad’s family hires private investigator Albert Galigani to uncover who killed her son. Neither he nor SFPD can find George, but both assume the missing man’s brother and sister-in-law knows more than they are telling, which is nothing. Kate searches for the elusive George only to get in trouble with the police and an unknown adversary who might be George.

The keys to this straightforward whodunit are Kate’s adjustment to motherhood to include her daily to do list and hard boiled Galigani who is amused by the new mother teaches her the ropes of investigating. In other words chick lit meets Noir in Dana Orgain’s fun mystery.

Harriet Klausner