Mother's Little Helper

In the third novel in Karen MacInerney’s madcap series, murder proves a welcome distraction to the zany adventures and quirky characters in PI Margie Peterson’s life.

Private investigator/single mom Margie Peterson barely has time for breakfast, let alone to hit the gym. But when Austin Heights PTA president Pansy Parker hires her to find out who’s been embezzling PTA funds, that’s exactly where Margie ends up...finding Pansy dangling upside down from a Nautilus machine. But the PTA president’s not alone: the dead body of a personal trainer is there, too. And now she’s facing murder charges.

To find out what really happened, Margie goes undercover as a Brazilian body waxer and an energy drink bottler. What she discovers stinks worse than a pair of sweaty gym socks.

But that’s not all. Margie’s husband is living with his Madonna-impersonating boyfriend; her boss keeps setting her up on disastrous dates, including one with a vengeful sock puppet named Marshmallow; her daughter’s fry phone is being held hostage; and her pet piglet, Twinkles, ran off after a sausage-smuggling streaker.

Can Margie pull out the big guns to find the real killer, save the fry phone, and recover Twinkles—before it’s too late?