THE AD SAID, PERSEPHONE COLE, HOTSHOT
INVESTIGATOR: INVESTIGATE THIS!
A witness says a large redheaded woman wearing a fedora had an argument with the victim. A fedora was found at the scene.
And its owner could be only one person— hotshot P.I. Persephone (Percy) Cole–because it’s 1943 and how many nearly six-foot, red-haired fedora-fancying female P.I.s could possibly prowl the streets of New York? All the cops know Percy.
She’s one of a kind, both in1940s New York, and in all of crime fiction. For openers, she’s a single mom living with her adored son Oliver and her parents, each of whom is their own kind of hoot. Pantsuits haven’t yet been invented, so Percy wears men’s suits that her mom alters to fit her: “A seam let out, a seam taken in, and they fit the five foot eleven, one hundred- and eighty-two-pound Percy perfectly.”
(Mom’s an inventive cook too— cranberry and ketchup fish stew is one of her specialties.)
Will the Real Percy Cole Please Stand Up?
Percy finds out about the case when she sees her name in the personals column: “Persephone Cole, Hotshot Investigator. Investigate this: Wilma Markovich, fifty-eight years old, widow.”
She knows right away she’s being set up, and no sooner has she grasped the particulars than another personals ad appears:
“Still think you’re a hotshot detective, Percy Cole? I don’t think so. And soon everyone else will know you’re not. Check out Elizabeth Wallingford, age fifty-seven, Manhattan.”
Okay, this is war! And she acquires a powerful weapon to fight it—she gets hired to find the first victim’s killer and soon notices a pattern. It seems each murder has a disturbing connection to The Cloisters Museum.
Disturbing because so does Percy—her mom’s producing a fashion show there on Mother’s Day, and her whole family will be there.
Fans of HBO’s Perry Mason or Peacock’s Poker Face Will Find a New Gumshoe to Obsess over in Percy Cole
In the world of mysteries, P.I. yarns (hard-boiled and otherwise), crime thrillers, and cozies, Percy Cole’s that rare beast—a truly original creation. Men will fall in love with her (even those five-ten and under) and women will want to be her. Author Haven’s pulled off a literary tour-de-force— a mystery that both hard-boiled and cozy fans will love.
Fans of HBO’s Perry Mason or Peacock’s Poker Face Will Find a New Gumshoe to Obsess over in Percy Cole
In the world of mysteries, P.I. yarns (hard-boiled and otherwise), crime thrillers, and cozies, Percy Cole’s that rare beast—a truly original creation. Men will fall in love with her (even those five-ten and under) and women will want to be her. Author Haven’s pulled off a literary tour-de-force— a mystery that both hard-boiled and cozy fans will love.