Mabel Maney - A Ghost In The Closet

“America’s two greatest girl detective as lovers? Could anything in the history of pop culture be more irreverent?”

—NEW YORK NEWSDAY

“Maney, who evidently grew up bent in a straighter-than-thou environment, has had a field day with our conventions. Wittily, subversively, she has exposed the underbelly of America: it’s softly rounded, and warm.”

—TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL

“In a gem of a book-length parody, the author faithfully hews to the narrative and plotting style of juvenile series fiction, her remarkably straight face making the goings on all the funnier. I loved this book …”

—ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERY MAGAZINE

“You’ll laugh until your dress gets mussed … Maney knows ’50s America like she majored in Ozzie and Harriet.”

—LAMBDA BOOK REPORT

The sequel to THE CASE OF THE NOT-SO-NICE NURSE is another hoot, a lampooning of girls’ fiction of the past full of hapless, do-gooding detectives with ‘keen sleuthing abilities, up-to-the-minute fashion sense, and gracious finishing-school manners.’ With a honey like Cherry, who is always careful to keep an ample supply of freshly starched, white linen handkerchiefs in her seasonally appropriate handbag, we know Nancy can’t miss.”

—BOOKLIST

“Utter kitsch, done with class and distinction. Maney tools the pages like an expert, in the process bringing up a lot of dialogue about the role of lesbianism in the gay ’90s, albeit subtly.”

—YOUR FLESH MAGAZINE

MABEL MANEYspent her formative years travelling the Midwest in a green wood-paneled station wagon with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Maney, and three prize-winning black-and-white cocker spaniels, Taffy, Lady and Sadie, in search of blue ribbons and shiny trophies.

After her parents were lost at sea, Mabel and her dog chums settled with their maternal grandmother, Olive Krumpke, in Clear Lake, Wisconsin. Mabel received a strict Catholic education at Our Lady of the Lake School for Girls, where she devoted herself to clean living, community service and Catholic scholarship.

Her first full-length novel, Pets of the Saints (now out-of-print), won her accolades from around the state, and her macaroni model of the last days of Joan of Arc made apparent to all her artistic bent. After an unfortunate misstep prevented her from taking the veil, Mabel moved west, eventually settling in San Francisco where she lives happily with her beloved Miss Lily Bee.

Mabel Maney is the author of The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse (Cleis, 1993) and The Case of the Good-For-Nothing Girlfriend (Cleis, 1994). Her installation art and handmade books, self-published under the World O’ Girls imprint, have earned her fellowships from The San Francisco Foundation and San Francisco State University, where she received her MFA in 1991. She is currently working on a musical based on the characters from A Ghost in the Closet .

“It’s the secret map we’ve been looking for!”

Mabel Maney

www.spice-books.co.uk

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

Cover

Praise

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

1 Stop, Thief!”

2 Dog Gone!

3 A Daring Rescue

4 Thwarted!

5 A Difficult Decision

6 Thwarted Again!

7 A Surefire Scheme

8 A Romantic Rendezvous

9 A Lovelorn Nurse

10 Girl Trouble!

11 The Mystery of Love

12 A Torrid Tale

13 A Knotty Affair

14 Captured!

15 A Dramatic Entrance

16 Party Games

17 Puzzling Behavior

18 Cosmic Yearnings

19 The Telltale Slippers

20 Hold It Right There!”

21 Torn Asunder!

22 Foreign Foe?

23 Chili con Carne and Baked Alaska

24 A Chase

25 A Lulu of a Revelation

26 A Daring Leap

27 The Science Lesson

28 What Luck!

29 A Dire Warning!

30 A Lucky Break

31 A Watery Grave?

32 Mission Accomplished

33 A Clever Ruse

34 The Plot Thickens

35 And Brains, Too!

36 Nelly to the Rescue

37 To the Tunnels!

38 The Strange Case of Darcy New

39 Second Thoughts?

40 A Star Is Born!

41 Frank’s Anguish

42 I Before E Except After C

43 A Sad Case

44 Boy, Oh, Boy!”

45 What Goes Up Must Come Down

46 To the Moon!

47 Frank Sees the Light

48 Prisoners!

49 It’s John Glenn!”

50 To the Rescue!

51 To Tell the Truth

52 Hurry!

53 Say Cheese !”

54 What a Shock!

55 Take Them Away!”

56 A Tearful Reunion

57 Shall We Dance?”

58 And the Winner Is …”

59 A Happy Ending

Endpages

Copyright

Dedicated to the memory of Billy Tipton

“He sang in a high voice.”

and to Herbert S. Zim,

whose delightful and informative books

have provided many hours of pleasant reading

As always

for Miss Lily Bee

and

for Miss Coco,

who will be sadly missed

Special thanks to Leasa Burton

for her keen editing skills

and

buckets of gratitude

to my sweet boy chums

for their generosity, grace and wit

Tom Metz

Donald Smith

Chuck Stallard

“I can hardly wait to get home and show Father all the exciting new French detective techniques we learned while on our vacation!” Joe Hardly said eagerly. The dark-haired, muscular lad, one half of the crime-fighting team known far and wide as the Hardly boys, leaned against the rail of the majestic Queen Mary and gazed at the wide expanse of blue water all around them. In two days, they would arrive in New York Harbor, catch a speedy train to their beloved hometown of Feyport, Illinois, and be reunited with their parents, world-famous detective Fennel P. Hardly and his wife, Mrs. Hardly. Although Joe had had a swell time on their six-week jaunt through Europe, the tousled-haired lad was eager to get back home and resume his exciting life as a famous boy detective .