Having commiserated with friends over their respective mother-in-law problems, inspiring thoughts of devilish intent, Haskell now fears that someone's innocent homicidal fantasies have given way to action and that her problems are only just beginning. From the author of The Widow's Club and The Thin Woman

Dorothy Cannell is sometimes credited with being the originator of the cozy mystery. In a cozy mystery, the protagonist is a hapless amateur who becomes unwittingly involved in a local murder. Usually the scene is a small, quaint town, the violence takes place offstage and the mystery begins with the discovery of a body. Cannell also attempts to follow mystery writer Agatha Christie's rule that there be six suspects and that the murderer be known to the reader. Born in Nottingham, England, Cannell has written eight full-length cozies and is a contributor to the popular Sisters in Crime anthologies. Among her novels are The Thin Woman (1984) which won the Best Paperback Novel of the Year Award from the Romance Writers of America, and The Widows' Club (1988), an Agatha Award nominee. Other work includes Down the Garden Path (1985) Mum's the Word (1990), Femmes Fatal (1992), How to Murder Your Mother-in-Law (1994), How to Murder the Man of Your Dreams (1995), God Save the Queen! (1997), and The Spring Cleaning Murders (1998). Dorothy Cannell lives in Peoria, Illinois, and has been known to play host at public libraries' evening mystery programs.