Good, Clean Fun: a Meh-rathon

From And A Happy New Fear (Ms. Theroux Mysteries, #13):

It was one of the services Ms. Theroux offered in January: assisting her clients with the removal of their holiday decorations, indoors and out, so that she could help put them away in an orderly fashion for the next year.

And so she found herself crunching through the front yard of Mr. Louten’s regal home, removing lights from a bush. Or maybe crunching was the wrong word. The temperature was unusually high, so the snow had been melted to a slushy texture.

Her every move was watched over by a white figure, itself succumbing to the same melt.

“I wouldn’t think of you as the snowman-making type,” Ms. Theroux called to Mr. Louten as he came down the ladder with a bundle of lights under his arm.

“Oh, Theodore?” Mr. Louten chuckled as he stepped onto the ground. “That’s what Hannah and I have taken to calling him. At any rate, you’re right. We’re not snowman-making people. It just appeared there one morning. Some youths must’ve made it in the dead of night. Spreading cheer, or some such thing.”

This explanation left Ms. Theroux uneasy, and a moment later her uneasiness was found to be justified. A piece of melting snow fell from the snowman’s head, revealing a face. One they both recognized: the local track star who’d gone missing shortly before Christmas.

Mr. Louten dropped his lights. “Why, it’s–” But he stopped himself from saying anything further.

According to the news reports, the young man’s name had been Theodore.

What better day for a spring-cleaning-themed Meh-ration than March 12th, the birthday of author Alicia Prescott? Creator of the character Ms. Theroux, the mystery-solving maid who appears in over 40 novels, Prescott has come to be known as “the queen of clean” in literary circles. So, stick around all day as we share excerpts from Prescott’s work, as well as tidbits from her letters, interviews, reviews, and more. Oh, and there will be deals too. On cleaning products. And also non-cleaning products.