Veronica Heley

False Money
An Abbott Agency Cozy Series

Domestic agency owner Bea Abbott goes to bat for one of her unofficial offspring while her real son and daughter-in-law do their best to keep her from her grandson. Between visiting his home district and fretting over his overwrought wife Nicole, MP Max Abbot has little time to care for his colicky new son Pippin. Max's mother Bea is sure that all Pippin needs is a change in formula, but even the mildest correction to Nicole's parenting is met with hysteria. It's no wonder Bea prefers her makeshift brood: hyperkinetic Maggie, who fearlessly bosses around contractors on behalf of the Abbot Agency; brainy Oliver, whose success at Cambridge helps counterbalance a legacy of rejection by his parents; and charming Chris, flush with the success of his first film venture. Bea knows that Chris is an operator, but she can't ignore his pleas to help find his Nigerian friend Tomilola, ostensibly because she's disappeared with his library books. As attempts to find Tomi dead-end, Chris grows genuinely alarmed. After Tomi's body turns up in a field off Fulmer Lane, her sometime boyfriend Harry and Harry's friends Jamie and Hermia help Chris and Bea retrace the beautiful Nigerian's last days. Meanwhile, Max and Nicole bar Bea from their home, hiring a nanny to care for Pippin. But as her pursuit of Tomi's killer intensifies, Bea starts to fear that their choice of caregivers may put her beloved grandson in danger.