"Murder meets its match in this feisty, funny heroine...A tidy mystery with...polished writing and industrial suspense."



"Kathy Hogan Trocheck's cleverly plotted puzzlers are a gift...witty dialogue, sassy characters, and an unobtrusive subtext about social issues."


Orlando Sun-Sentinel
"Kathy Hogan Trocheck's cleverly plotted puzzlers are a gift...witty dialogue, sassy characters, and an unobtrusive subtext about social issues."


Margaret Maron
"As Strange Brew proves, there's nothing strange about Kathy Hogan Trocheck's growing reputation. Her writing here is just as flip, just as New South sassy as ever, but underneath is a deepening compassion that wisely gives even her modern-day devils their due."


Sue Grafton
"Murder meets its match in this feisty, funny heroine...A tidy mystery with...polished writing and industrial suspense."


Book Description
A taste for trouble Cleaning lady cum sleuth Callahan Garrity has cautiously watched her seedy bohemian Atlanta neighborhood morph into a trendy haven for yuppies. But just as she fears, too much cappuccino and new money can be a bad mix. When the young owner of a microbrewery looking to score prime real estate turns up dead, neighborhood local Wuvvy, an aging flower child and the brewer's bitterest foe, becomes the prime suspect. Digging for evidence to clear Wuvvy, Callahan isn't prepared for the succulent secrets she finds--shocking truths that force her to reassess old friendships and an old love--as even deadlier developments surface.


About the Author
Kathy Hogan Trocheck has written seven previous Callahan Garrity mysteries, including Midnight Clear and Strange Brew. A former reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she lives in Georgia with her husband and two children.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Housecleaner/sleuth Callahan Garrity, who is as tough on crime as she is on grime, returns in Strange Brew to clean up a case involving hippies and yuppies in a changing Atlanta neighborhood at Halloween. Trocheck again displays plenty of wit and insight, giving more than a lick and a promise to an intriguing story of clashing social values.

—Nancy Pate

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In five superlative mysteries, cleaning lady cum sleuth Callahan Garrity has patrolled the uneasy border where antebellum and New South converge. Now, in her most timely and intricate adventure yet, she must step in when hippies, yuppies, and crackers clash with murderous consequences. Overnight, it seems, Callahan's Atlanta neighborhood is morphing from a genial mix of hobo and boho into an upscale, cappuccino-drenched quarter. The most unsettling portent of this change is that YoYos, a venerable headshop, is being forced out of business so that a microbrewery can take over its prime real estate. As the neighborhood gears up for its raucous Halloween revels, Callahan realizes that trouble is brewing. Not only is a fierce tornado bearing down on Atlanta, but Wuvvy, the aging flower child who runs YoYos, is on an uncharacteristic rampage. And in the storm's aftermath, Callahan's fears are confirmed when she finds the bludgeoned corpse of the grasping young entrepreneur who was pushing Wuvvy out. The police are quick to pin the crime on Wuvvy, but Callahan can't believe that gentle soul would commit such a brutal act. Callahan's unique ability to mingle with superannuated hippies or small-town Southern belles allows her to dig into the victim's past and Wuvvy's. She unearths a slew of succulent revelations about Wuvvy - a tabloid-worthy tale strikingly at odds with the woman Callahan thought she knew. Her search also forces her to reassess old friendships in light of deadly new developments. As Callahan's investigation unfolds, she unleashes her wry wit, tussles with the outrageous band of "girls" (and one newly recruited "boy") in her cleaning business, and rekindles romance with her rugged beau, Mac McAuliffe.

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