Mom Among the Liars — James Yaffe

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Everybody talks under the influence of Mom's chicken pot pie--especially her son, Dave, an investigator with the public defender's office in Mesa Grande, Colorado. Discussing cases with Mom has become routine--her logic and rat-trap brain have helped him solve as many murders out West as back in the Bronx.

Amidst the heat of a tight political race, Edna Pulaski, a local madam, is murdered. The prime suspect is a homeless derelict who lives on the street nearby. The case seems open and shut, and the district attorney, who is up for reelection, wants a fast conviction. But Mom's got a nose for exactly the kind of hanky-panky going on in Mesa Grande's corridors of power. So does the killer.