Kirjahaku

Vlad Chomsky has a comfortable life. He is a professor of archaeology at a small Midwestern university. He has three children and a lovely wife, Maria. Yes, everything in Vlad's life is a comfortable routine-until the day his wife tells him she is leaving him for her bowling team manager. Feeling like a "used husband" who has been returned to the store as defective, Vlad begins a new life. On the way, he meets a cast of characters who help him discover that even something as impossible to make as a seven ten split really is possible. There is his new landlady, a 90-something former burlesque queen, and her tiny Toy Poodle, Gaston. There is her un-handyman, Norm, librarian Beatrice Krup, who has a crush on him. And of course, Britney, his new love and student activist. This motley cast of characters somehow manages to draw him into a terrorist plot, and Vlad and Gaston must save the town from a crazed saboteur.

Professor Vlad Chomsky needs a break after saving the town of Crawford, Wisconsin from terrorists, and he knows exactly how to get the rest and relaxation he needs-a romantic Rhine River cruise with the lovely librarian Beatrice Krup. Vlad imagines sharing his passion for history with Beatrice as they tour the castles, museums, and cathedrals of Germany, while spending warm spring evenings together watching the river glide by-without his ex-wife and kids, and especially without his elderly landlady Sandra Tooksbury, her friend and handyman Norm, and her feisty toy poodle, Gaston. Yes, Gaston helped Vlad save Crawford, but he doesn't need a crowd watching-and offering advice-as he takes his relationship to Beatrice "to the next level."But Vlad has forgotten Norm and Sandra's ability to show up just when they aren't wanted and is dismayed when Sandra hoodwinks her way on board the cruise, Norm and Gaston in tow.When Norm becomes the prime suspect in a diamond heist, Vlad's hopes for a quite, romantic cruise are shattered. Will Gaston and the gang discover the real thief in time? And will finally have a chance to "pop the question" to Beatrice? This is the second adventure of Vlad, Gaston the Poodle, and all of their friends. You can find out more about them in Jan Detrie's first book, The Seven Ten Split.

Not every murder is a piece of cake...sometimes it's a poisoned pie. The most hated woman in Crawford keels over dead after eating a piece of pie baked by Beatrice for the annual baking contest. Her friends, including her fianc Vlad, rush to clear her name, as the crime-solving poodle Gaston leads the charge.Clues send the gang all over town investigating the deceased woman's husband, herfeuding neighbors, and a sworn enemy. Each is hiding a secret from the past. The killer won't hesitate to strike again to keep the dead buried.