Pauline Cook has grown accustomed to the finer things in
life. Now that she is a widow and has to make it on her
own, she needs to adjust to a new way of living. Pauline's
sudden lack of money is a secret from her friends and they
have no idea she is in so much debt.
After being stood up for a lunch date with her best
friend, writer, Ethan Campbell, Pauline goes to his
apartment to investigate. What she finds there is his
body, dead, from an apparent suicide. With no family to
bury him, Pauline volunteers to pay for his funeral. After
searching through Ethan's personal things for answers, she
finds multiple birth certificates. Pauline begins to
question whether Ethan is who she thought he was. Unable
to simply bury this man without knowing who he truly is,
Pauline goes on a quest to find out the truth.
In the meantime, Pauline desperately tries to keep the
rumors at bay about Ethan's suicide. The local society
women are buzzing about Ethan and whether or not he was a
phony. While traveling from Chicago to England to NY,
Pauline meets some questionable men who become interested
in her romantically. After being so lonely and without a
husband, Pauline is flattered at the sudden attention she
is receiving. Will Pauline get herself involved in a
dangerous situation or will she find herself a wealthy man
to save her from her financial ruin?
Pauline receives a call from a man saying she is to
inherit a large amount of money from Ethan Campbell. This
is the answer to all of her problems! Unfortunately
nothing is simple for poor Pauline. A number of people
also want this money and they will not leave her alone
until she hands it over to them. Will Pauline risk her
life to keep the inheritance or will she hand over the
money and walk away?
WELL BRED AND DEAD is a cozy mystery about how far someone
will go to clear their friend's good name. In a society
where money is all that matters, Pauline slowly discovers
that friendship is what's really important in life. But
without any money to her name, the green paper starts to
become more important to her then anything else.
I would have preferred a different ending to the story.
It did have a major twist and that was exciting, but the
ending just left me feeling unsatisfied. Maybe the book
would have been better unresolved and continued in another
book in more detail. The main character, Pauline Cook, was
very egotistical and arrogant. It took me a long time to
warm up to her and to care about her well being. Overall,
I did enjoy WELL BRED AND DEAD and would recommend it to
cozy mystery fans.
Newly widowed
Pauline Cook was once the toast of the Windy City elite—but
now she's
practically broke. At least she's in better shape than her dear
departed friend Ethan Campbell, whose corpse Pauline has had the
misfortune to discover. A writer who chronicled the lives,
loves, and
ensembles of the Gold Coast's most elegant ladies, Ethan
apparently
took his own life—while inelegantly clad in old boxers, no
less. And
since no relatives are coming forward to claim Ethan's
remains, it
falls to Pauline to settle his final affairs . . . with her own
dwindling funds.
However, there are things about
Ethan's
suicide that don't seem to add up: the ratty undergarments
he "chose"
to die in, for example . . . and the multiple birth
certificates the
police turn up in his apartment. Before she can truly lay
her friend to
rest, plucky Pauline's determined to get to the bottom of his
increasingly suspicious death.
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