Dial H for Hitchcock: A Cece Caruso Mystery

The indomitable Cece Caruso is back in Susan Kandel’s Dial H For Hitchcock. The vintage clothes enthusiast, biographer of masters of mystery, and amateur sleuth who has flourished her skills in Christietown and I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason now tackles a murderous puzzle full of twists, turns, and mistaken identities worthy of maestro Hitchcock himself. Readers will be Spellbound by this latest investigation by sometime-detective Cece, whom reviewers have called, “Delightful” (Boston Globe) and “A hoot” (Denver Rocky Mountain News). True mystery fans would have to be Psycho to miss Dial H For Hitchcock.

Cece Caruso—mystery biographer extraordinaire, vintage clothing enthusiast, and part-time sleuth—is in freefall. First, she calls off her wedding, for reasons even she can't explain. Second, her newest biography (of Alfred Hitchcock) is way past deadline.

So Cece puts on a houndstooth suit with peplum and heads out to see Vertigo, only to come home with a cell phone belonging to a stranger named Anita Colby. Nothing if not a good citizen, Cece tries to return the cell phone—only to hear someone push Anita off a cliff.

Now a woman is dead, and Cece is under suspicion (tip: don't leave rambling, incoherent messages on someone's answering machine just before she gets murdered). To clear her name and put the real murderer in jail, Cece's going on the lam, where she'll encounter mysterious strangers, unhelpful strippers, a bottle of blond hair dye, and twists and turns so eerie it's as if Hitch himself were writing the script.

“[B]reezy, entertaining . . . Brisk prose, a pistol of a protagonist, and nice riffs on Hitch—both biographical and psychological.” - Booklist

“Alfred Hitchcock fans should love Kandel’s fifth Cece Caruso mystery, a terrific tribute that’s also wickedly funny . . . Kandel keeps the action tight all the way to a delightful denouement that Hitch no doubt would have appreciated.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[R]eal charmers . . . [a] clever series.” - New York Times Book Review