Hazardous Duty by Christy Barritt

Have you ever worked as a cleaner/housekeeper (either domestic or commercial)? If so, did anything unusual ever happen on the job?

Gabby St. Claire had to quit college during her senior year to take care of her alcoholic father. She’d been going to school to be a forensic psychologist. The closest job she can find for her dream career is being a crime scene cleaner. She cleans up crime scenes after the police are done collecting their evidence. When she’s cleaning the house of a high-powered politician – a politician who may have killed his wife – she finds evidence that the police missed. Can she prove that the politician killed his wife instead of the scapegoat they have in custody?

Somebody is trying to kill Gabby. Parker, a police detective, is trying to assist in the case. Gabby is convinced that the supposed-politician-wife-killer is after her life too. After all, she did uncover the evidence, and the police have not told the public about her findings.

Since the police are so lazy about finding the real killer, Gabby takes it upon herself to find the killer. When they arrest her co-worker for a related crime, Gabby is doubly interested in finding the killer/arsonist. After all, she needs to prove that her co-worker is innocent.

Gabby attempts to solve the crime while an assortment of zany characters assist her. There’s Sierra, her animal-loving/animal-rights neighbor, Riley, a handsome mysterious man who lives across the hall. Why is Riley so secretive about his life? There’s also Parker (a Brad Pitt look alike) who is the detective on the case. Why does he continue to ignore Gabby’s evidence findings?

I thought this book was a humorous, delightful read. The story moves quickly and the chapters are written in a way that’ll make you want to keep reading. Overall, it was a good mystery.

So, have you ever worked as a cleaner/housekeeper (either domestic or commercial)? Did anything unusual ever happen on the job?