Susan Callisto has left her job as a Boston real estate
attorney to start her own political consulting career. She
has a few clients, but she struggles to pay her bills. When
rich and charming Chaz Renfrow approaches her and asks her
to help him win the mayoral campaign, the $20,000 retainer
is just too good to be true.
Nino Biondi is Susan's client and grandfather figure. He is
having problems with his landlord and his Italian temper is
giving Susan a headache. Another client, Roddie Baird, is
running for alderman, and has a bit of a problem playing by
Susan's rules. Her new client, Chaz, brings Susan right in
the middle of a murder investigation and suddenly, Susan
starts receiving threats.
She is also on the outs with her boyfriend, Detective
Lieutenant Michael Benedict. The murder investigation
brings him back into the fold and adds to Susan's
realization that her ability to size up her male clients is
lacking of late. She is the recipient of their lies and
her very reputation is at stake.
A CRACK IN EVERYTHING is Angela Gerst's debut Susan Callisto
mystery. It is an amusing, action-filled story with
headstrong characters who ensure that Susan Callisto never
has a dull moment. This story is quite entertaining and a
snappy setup for a series.
Susan Callisto is pushing thirty and taking stock. Before
she traded financial security at a Boston law firm for
sandals and jeans in Waltham, she specialized in real estate
law. Now she has reinvented herself as a political
consultant for ordinary people seeking low-level office. Her
income may be dicey, but Susan loves her new life—until her
sometime boyfriend, Detective Lieutenant Michael Benedict,
dumps her without a goodbye. Not one to mope, Susan uses
humor and perpetual motion to push away the pain.
Susan's new world is one where politics can turn deadly and
even love may not survive. So when local high roller Charles
Renfrow offers her a huge retainer to advise his political
campaign, Susan is wary. Why would a scientist stalking the
human genome want to be mayor of a small Massachusetts town?
Finding the answer takes Susan through a maze of toxic
secrets including those floating around Renfrow's biotech
company. On her way to confront him, Susan instead finds the
body of his beautiful assistant. Assigned to the case,
Michael reenters Susan's life.
When Michael's suspicions settle on Roddie Baird, yet
another, and favorite, of Susan's clients, Susan elbows her
way into the investigation. She hopes to prove Michael
wrong. As she probes—and lays her own life on the line—Susan
uncovers a crack in everything….