Stella, in her search for Elena, ends up as acting nanny for young Steven. She does seem to have a knack for dealing with the child and they become friends of a sort. The suspects include the father of the child, Grant Holman, who was a classmate in kindergarten through junior high; the business partner Barry Quinley and his lush of a wife, Millie; the owner, Louise Braden, of the Dustbunnies, the company that employed Elena. Stella does a lot of running around, finding out little.

Meanwhile, Stella has a romantic problem with her younger lover, Jason, who mysteriously disappears to be with a "sick friend." And Stella knows what that means. Add to her problems, all the crazy letters she has to answer as Stella the Stargazer and she has her hands full.

The mystery took too long to solve. Only the one murder took place and it wasn't proven to be murder until the last chapter. There is a lot of supposedly witty dialogue, but the story itself never really took off. The characters were well-drawn but not at all engaging. The father seemed like he might really get interesting, but nothing ever really jelled. This is one of those books where you end up reading the last chapter to see what happened but never want to read it all.

--Kay Black