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AMATEUR SLEUTH/COZY/
DOGS/HISTORICAL/
SOFT-BOILED/TRADITIONAL MYSTERY
lost among the angels
Mercy Allcutt, Boston Brahmin, wants to experience life in all its grittiness. How better than by working for a down-on-his luck PI in 1926 Hollywood? Once she discovers what PI actually stands for, she knows Mr. Ernest Templeton is the boss for her.
 
Raised in the ivory tower of proper Boston, when well-bred Mercy gets a job with Ernest Templeton, Private Investigator, she's ecstatic. Ernie, a jaded ex-cop, is incredulous. Together, they must cope with a stray child, kidnapping, blackmail, murder, a toy poodle, a vamp, a stalker, Mercy's overactive imagination and Ernie's strong protective streak. Throw in a speakeasy, Chinatown, and a couple of down-and-dirty criminals, and Mercy and Ernie are in for a drama that will put the motion picture industry to shame. If they can survive long enough to tell the story.
Read A Review:

Mercy Allcutt is a delight. I hope she has many more adventures.

Carola Dunn, author of the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries.


It is 1926 Los Angeles, where men wear hats and hold doors for ladies, and women worry about the length of their hair and hemlines. Enter 21-year-old Mercedes "Mercy" Louise Allcutt, the daughter of an old-money Boston family living with her sister who is married to a new-money motion picture mogul.
 
Wanting to get experience so she can write books, Mercy gets a job as secretary to a private detective. Although she is way out of her depth, the engaging and lively Mercy plows right along in a number of sticky situations, finding the missing mother of a street urchin, a kidnapped dog, and a serial killer of beautiful young women. This fun read will appeal to patrons who enjoy 1920s mysteries like Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple and Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series.

JoAnn Vicarel, Library Journal.

 
LOST AMONG THE ANGELS is smart, funny, and wonderful.   Alice Duncan has a distinctive style, a wonderful wit, and the ability to transport the reader back in time.   In this book we’re revisiting the days of speakeasies, opium dens, and wannabe movie stars waiting to be discovered.   The storyline moves rapidly and is peopled with very likeable protagonists, and well-developed, colorful, secondary characters.   Mercy and Ernie make a great team, and there are hints of a romantic relationship between them in future stories. This cozy mystery has it all -- kidnapping, blackmail, murder, mayhem, stalking (to name a few) -- and is pure delightful entertainment.

Betty Cox, NovelTalk