Anita Servi Mysteries
1 primary work • 4 total works
Book 4
Anita Servi has given up her stressful job as a social worker and is now helping out her husband, Benno, doing simple jobs in his woodworking shop and spending time in the arty community under the New York Manhattan Bridge. Then Anita discovers the hidden body of a young man who has been brutally murdered. There are no clues to his identity or why he might have been killed - only a corpse and too many questions that demand answers. Finding the answer is something Anita knows how to do and now her search takes her from the Russian baths on the Lower East Side to the art galleries of the East Village. And what she uncovers is revealed in a startling denouement.
On Friday night, Anita and Benno Servi were sitting on the front steps of their Manhattan apartment building, necking like teenagers. By Monday afternoon, Benno was the prime suspect in the murder of their babysitter, Ellen Chapman. Benno had walked the young student home and when she didn't arrive on Monday to pick up the Servi's daughter, Anita went to Ellen's apartment. That's when she found the body, stabbed with a screwdriver belonging to Benno and with only his fingerprints on it. Had he been having an affair with the young woman? And why, despite the evidence, would Anita refuse to believe the facts? As she starts to discover more, answering the questions about Benno's possible guilt as a murderer becomes only part of the problem.
Social worker, Anita Servi's world is turned upside down one morning when Clea, her five-year-old daughter, discovers the body of a homeless woman who had occasionally slept on a landing in their apartment building. The body's unusual position and bloody head wound make it clear to Anita - if not to the police - that a crime has been committed. Lillian Raines, also known as 'the lady of the landing', had been an enigma to those, including Anita, who had tried to help her. Determined at least to track down and notify the family, Anita begins to piece together Lillian's story. Was she as rich as rumoured? Why did she spend so much time by the memorial to the Amiable Child in Riverside Park? Anita must use her contacts and intelligence if she is to get justice and peace of mind.
Anita Servi has a new job, but with the same old problems. She's still helping those who cannot find help elsewhere to cope with living in a city that can't always afford all they need. When those citizens are suffering because of age, race or income and when they find no alternatives, they sometimes turn to each other. And sometimes they turn on each other. When benevolence become murder, Anita has to look into one friend's death as another begins to face her own. There are some people for whom life is not worth living.