The Dead Husband: A Sally Sees Cozy Mystery (Paperback)

~ R.J. Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Cleaning up dead husbands is not in Sally Collier's job description, so when she finds one buried at the bottom of his garden, her Monday morning work schedule gets majorly derailed. Sally has history with the owners of the multi-million dollar home overlooking Discovery Bay on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, and when her beau, Jefferson County Chief of Detectives GEORGE TULLOCK warns her she'll have to do a "Sally Sees": remember what she saw when she got there, her day turns into a walk down a bad memory lane. From being raised in post-World War II London, England to becoming a secretary and emigrating to Chicago, Illinois where she went from an eager-beaver office gal to a single mom of two chickadees; from heading west to California's Bay Area where she met Mel and Renee at a Human Potential Movement training, and started cleaning for a living. To moving on to picturesque Port Townsend and working in a doctor's practice, she's made a good life for herself, started Sal's Gals, her cleaning company, & found a good man to love. Sally's proud that Charles Dickens wrote about her current trade in A CHRISTMAS CAROL and says of her mentor: "My Mum was a good char, it's just that she didn't clean with a light heart. You know, have fun. Oh, quit sniggering! Of course you can have fun cleaning house. What's the first thing most little girls play at? Anyway, she taught me that a family's home will tell you a lot about how they're getting along, and for the past three years, this one's been in trouble." Sally tells her first mystery from the perspective of an immigrant and a business woman, and isn't shy about her memories, the joy she finds in cleaning her homes and her love life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Big River Press (April 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979874475
• ISBN-13: 978-0979874475
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #110,910 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, July 30, 2009

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (7/09)

R. J. Brown has done it again. With her vivid descriptions of her characters, scenery and attention to detail, she captures the reader's attention throughout "The Dead Husband."

Sally Collier is a very creative, endearing woman. Nothing escapes her. She is the owner of Sal's Gals, a very lucrative cleaning service. She and her coworkers are very detailed in their work and become friends of each of the families they work for. In her job as a char (cleaning person) Sally has seen and experienced many things, but not death in her job. Since her relationship to the deceased is a point of interest she is also considered a suspect in this mysterious death.

It doesn't hurt to have her friend Chief of Detectives encourage her to relate what she thought was different from the last time she cleaned for the family. Eager to join in the investigation, Sally is able to give impeccable information and lead the direction of the investigation.

Much of the story gives a detailed background of Sally and her emigration from the United Kingdom to Chicago. After her marriage and two children, Sally finds herself in Discovery Bay where she sets up her cleaning business.

"The Dead Husband" by R. J. Brown is a fast-paced book that you don't want to put down. You are caught up in the world of Sally Collier, so be prepared for the best ride ever.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first "Sally Sees" mystery, July 9, 2009

By	Texas Bibliophile "mystery maven" (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews

I have just finished reading The Dead Husband and will pass it on to my first sister. She is a cozy addict so I know she will love it. Thank you R.J. Brown for and "earlier born" character that so many of us can relate to. I am also a "runt" though I was born in the last few months of WWII. I do love older characters because I feel that
the stories written around them are richer due to their age.
Please keep the Sally Sees books coming. I look forward to your next book.
Frieta Battistoni

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cleaning Isn't Always Fun, June 23, 2009

By	RebeccasReads.com "Rebecca's Reads" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Enid Grabiner for Rebecca's Reads (6/09)

As a young immigrant from London, Sally Collier, is trained as a secretary and emigrates to Chicago to begin her new life. Finding herself a single mother of two with no support from their father, she embarks on a new journey, first to California and then to Washington State, each step finding someone to mentor her.

Sally, char extraordinaire, finds herself in a very messy situation. As head of a cleaning group, Sal's Gals, she is off to clean a property of a longstanding client, only to find him dead and buried in his garden. Talk about pushing up the daisies! It is the obvious result of foul play and Sally is embroiled in the investigation.

As a longtime friend of the victim Mel Birnbaum, she has a long personal history with his surviving family: a cheating wife and her boss/paramour, a needy teenage daughter and Mel's aging parents. With the help of boyfriend, George, the Chief of Detectives in Jefferson County, she tries to extricate herself from the situation while maintaining her cleaning service.

Sally is a caring and involved and her relationships with friends, lovers and clients are never casual. This novel seems to be setting up a back-story in development of a future series. There are many extraneous facts and characters that pop up that have no important connection to the mystery at hand. Often the side descriptions detract from the movement of the novel, "The Dead Husband." Having said that, there is a potential for Brown to create a rich likeable character for future novels in this series.