St. Augustine’s School for Unwanted Boys (Avon Calling!, #6) by Hayley Camille

The mob boys have to tell Donny Pinzolo that his nephew, Vince, and his gunzels have been killed at Kitty’s Kat House. Donny blames the messenger, Felix, for not having yet identified the perpetrator before this last hit.

Back at the Jones’ house, Nancy discovers her mother sewing money inside her mattress and questions her. Betty is able to offer an explanation that serves for the moment but she’s concerned that her smart and observant daughter is growing up so soon.

Betty leaves an Avon meeting at the home of a senior Avon lady and just misses running headlong into her old friend and NYPD Police Sergeant, Jacob Lawrence, as he slowly makes his way through a list of all Avon representatives in the city. He’s tracking down the origin of the Avon Calling! card found at the scenes of the recent mob slayings.

George and Betty meet with the mayor and Donny Pinzolo at St. Augustine’s to discuss the upcoming charity event. Betty ducks out of the meeting in order to check out the goings on in the basement with the mob, the orphans, and the stolen drugs. While Betty’s out of the room, George writes down his contact information for Donny on the back of one of Betty’s Avon Calling! cards that he rummages from her handbag. When the body of a dead gang member is found right after George and Betty leave the school, suspicion falls squarely on Betty, the only person that left the meeting, and now Donny has her home address.

The pressure is mounting and I kept wondering if George or one of the children was going to find out too much about Betty’s clandestine activities. With Jacob Lawrence on the right track to finding her and Donnie Pinzolo, himself, suspicious, Betty is starting to get into a very tight situation. This is the 6th episode of Camille's Avon Calling! historical suspense story. Due the episodic nature of the series, they should be read in order to understand what's going on and for maximum enjoyment.