Gaila Ozaki Perran

Ticked Off!: a Novel Murder Mystery Gaila Ozaki Perran

It looks like a murder that couldn't have happened. Frank Caponelli (a/k/a "Monsieur Francois"), owner of a downtown beauty salon in fashionable Westport, Connecticut, is found dead in his apartment, with a knife wound in his back.  The knife, wiped clean, is on the table beside him. Every door and window is locked from the inside and there are no finger prints anywhere. Baffled, police Lieutenant Phelanturns to Professor Sanford, head of the psychology department at Fairfield University. The professor and David Trent, his young assistant, agree to aid in the investigation. David, who has a definite weakness for female charm, is not at all reluctant, for it develops that many beautiful women have figured in the life of Frank Caponelli. Charcoal sketches of them line the walls of his apartment, all nudes, and all drawn by Frank, who had been an amorous esthete with a taste and talent for art. The investigation reveals that his affairs had been numerous as well as overlapping - and most of them with patrons of his salon. Professor Sanford feels that all of these women are suspects and David is given the not unwelcome assignment of tracing and interviewing them. The manner in which he accomplishes this, and the tangled chain of events he uncovers, provides an amusing and exciting background for the plot. There are other murders, and conflicting clues, but finally the evidence gathered by David enables the professor to arrive at the solution through clever psychological deduction. TICKED OFF!, by Gaila Ozaki Perran, is based on the book THE CUCKOO CLOCK, written by her father Milton K. Ozaki, in 1946. The murder and consequential activity surrounding this creative mystery story, has been modernized and injected into Westport's downtown business area. Ms. Perran has used the names of actual people and places of business wherever permitted.