The Trouble With Harriet — Dorothy Cannell

A delayed vacation is the least of Ellie Haskell's worries when her long-lost father shows up on her doorstep with some rather troublesome baggage

Ellie Haskell and her husband, Ben, haven't had a vacation in years. Now their bags are packed, and they're ready for a romantic get away to France. But things go awry when a chain-smoking Gypsy approaches Ellie with a dire prediction: "Take that trip at your peril!" Those ominous words ring true when her prodigal father, Morley, suddenly appears with an urn containing the remains of his ladylove, Harriet, whose untimely death in a car accident has left him bereft.

When Morley loses the urn in a bizarre series of events, Harriet's family is furious, and a bewildered Ellie asks some probing questions: What exactly is in that urn? Is her father a pawn in a deadly game? Is this what the Gypsy had foreseen? The answers are hilariously revealed in a caper so charming it could only have come from Dorothy Cannell.