The Literate Kitty

When Olivia Blunt—assistant to the World’s Greatest Detective—spies a reunion invitation in boss Aubrey Merritt’s office mail, she’s ecstatic. Surely her stern boss will jump at the chance to hang out—and maybe even let loose a little—with the sorority sisters she hasn’t seen in four decades... right? Instead, the older woman promptly dashes Olivia’s hopes, declaring she most definitely does  not  plan to attend such annoying silliness. Several days later—after a visit from the husband of an old sorority friend—Merritt has changed her tune, though... and expects Olivia to accompany her. Why? Because the man’s wife—a retired Brigadier General who surely made many enemies during her career—is hosting the reunion at their New Mexico ranch... and has received a death threat. Handwritten, on the back of one of the invitations. And just like that, the unlikely detective and her (still frequently-disappointing) assistant are desert-bound, in Liza Tully’s follow-up to last year’s firs...

So, a little about me. ( Trust me, it'll all make sense soon. ) I devoured the entire Nancy Drew book series—more than once—when I was little.    It followed, then, that sometimes one of my Barbie dolls got to act out being a detective; I was completely hooked on the idea.   Even now (years later!), whenever I read a mystery novel—or watch one in show/movie form—a little part of me is still right there in the detective’s shoes.   I’m hardly alone in my secret dreams of being a P.I., of course.    For most of us, though, that’s all it remains... a fantasy we live out vicariously on the page or screen.    But imagine, for a minute, what might’ve happened if you’d scrambled to make that dream a reality.   If, say, you finagled your way (possibly over-hyping your abilities a tiny bit) into an apprenticeship with not just a private investigator... but with a  legendary  one.   Well, then you might get something like the tale that u...