by Alice Quinn
Thank you to Laurence, Denis, and Christine for always being by my side.
Thank you to my agent Catherine Winckelmuller for her astute advice and for accepting to represent me when it became necessary.
Thank you to the Amazon France team—Marie-Pierre, Maura, Anne Laure, Eric, Clément, and Myriam—who support independent authors with an amazing sense of invention and energy. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some of you, so I apologize!
Thank you to the Kindle Most Wanted film crew, particularly Timoney, for her wonderful personal qualities.
Thank you to the Amazon Publishing and AmazonCrossing teams in Seattle for their kindness, intelligence, heart, verve, and support. Thank you (in no particular order) to Bryn, Jeff, Priyanka, Sarah Jane, Jacquelyne, Andrea, Galen, Lauren, Elisabeth, Alex, and their mascot (team pupster) Ferdinand. Please forgive me if I forgot to mention anyone here!
Thank you to Lindsay, Susan, Kamila, and Will for their eagle eyes when it comes to coherency and typos!
Thank you to the production team for the audiobook version: Darci, Brian, and Carly Robins (the voice of Rosie).
Special thanks go to Gabriella Page-Fort for her encouragement, enthusiasm, generosity, talent, attentiveness . . . and for simply being the person she is.
Thank you to my family (you know who you are) who are there for me every single day. It’s no mean feat!
And, of course, a huge thank-you to lovers of the lighthearted novel, who read to cheer themselves up, to laugh, and to help face life’s daily struggles with a little more ease.
About the Author
Photo © 2014 Chris Melek
Alice Quinn has worked many jobs, from theater hostess to waitress, and has traveled the world, often relying on her wits to make ends meet. After the success of her first Rosie Maldonne Mystery, Queen of the Trailer Park, in her native French, she quit her day jobs and now makes her living writing full-time. She lives in the South of France with her two teenage children and several cats.
About the Translator
Photo © 2015 Kirsten Claire
Back in 2001, after studying philosophy and French at the University of Leeds and realizing that writing a decent essay on Kant’s categorical imperative didn’t leave her with great many career options, Alexandra Maldwyn-Davies decided to move to Paris, where she embarked on her career in translation. She’s worked on popular video games (A Game of Thrones, In Memoriam), top-rated apps (Human Defense), bestselling fiction (Queen of the Trailer Park), and seductive travel guides (Fermes-Manoirs du Bessin). She has steadily built a successful French-to-English freelance translation business (www.amdexpression.com) and can now boast that she does what she loves every day of her life: telling people’s stories. Alexandra lives in rural Finistère with a motley crew of thirteen rescued dogs and cats.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Start Reading
Monday: Codes and Stuff
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Tuesday: Megacatch
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Wednesday: A Drinkypoo, Dearest?
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Thursday: The Best Things in Life Are Free
24
25
26
27
Friday: Nobody Puts Cricri in the Corner
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Saturday: Campfire
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
Sunday: Smile
48
Monday: A Hide out
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
Tuesday: A “Neither One Thing nor the Other” Situation
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
Wednesday: I Know, You Know, He Knows
69
70
71
72
73
74
Thursday: Maldonne! Atttt-eeeennnn-ttttiiiiooooon!
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
Friday: A Quiet Day
83
Saturday: Carpe Diem
84
85
86
87
Sunday: The Kids, the Cat, and Little Old Me
88
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Translator