The Importance of Being Ernestine — Dorothy Cannell

Reluctant best pals Ellie and Mrs. Malloy masquerade as detectives--can they find the killer before they kill each other?

Ever since Mrs. Malloy started moonlighting in a detective's office her employer, Ellie Haskell, has grudgingly missed the caustic, corpulent housekeeper. So when Mrs. M invites Ellie to Detective Jugg's office, Ellie is delighted. Just as the ladies have settled into a nice chat--and a sampling of Jugg's bourbon and Lucky Strikes--the absent detective's rich matriarch client, Lady Krumley, walks in. Mistaking Ellie and Mrs. M for private eyes, the Lady reveals to them the troubling story of her parlor maid, Flossie, whom Lady Krumley wrongfully dismissed thirty years ago and who died tragically young swearing vengeance on all Krumleys. Now several Krumley family members have met their end with bizarre accidents: could Flossie's daughter, Ernestine, be the cause? Feeling sorry for Lady Krumley (not to mention a little tipsy), Ellie and Mrs. Malloy turn detective, bound and determined to solve the case.