Number, Please

By Sheree Petree

"Hey Jay-Jay…You got that ocean view yet?" When Trish Malcolm first heard those words through her phone company headset, she had no idea an innocent operator would be run down in cold blood. Now Trish... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1892343258
• ISBN13: 9781892343253
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Oak Tree Pub Inc
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.0"

Customer Reviews

A real page turner!

I loved this book! Once I started it, I couldn't put it down.I love how the author had a surprise ending and introduced all the characters early on so everyone looked like a suspect! Ms. Petree's characters are well described and not knowing anything about the telephone company, I felt like I was sitting at the switchboard myself. I can't wait for Sheree Petree's next book!!!

Ma Bell's undercover operators - Very highly recommended

In 1963, a storm forces Trish Malcolm to fill in on the switchboard at Bell Telephone Company. A manager, Trish borrows an operator's number for her tickets, meaning Emma Bailey will get credit for her calls. The frantic pace of the night and her inexperience lead to a mistake. Trish overhears part of a call to Hawaii, and the man placing the call believes that she has heard too much. The following day an orchid arrives with a commendation for the operator handling the Hawaii call. When her shift ends, a car runs down Emma, killing her. Police believe it was kids joyriding. Trish suspects murder.No one believes Trish's story regarding the Hawaii call and its link to Emma's death. Driven by guilt, Trish begins her own investigation. Research links the call to a phone booth near an old mansion that has been subdivided into apartments. A convenient vacancy allows Trish to move in so she can watch the tenants and track a killer. Events soon escalate, however, leaving Trish isolated and unable to trust anyone.Readers who remember the movie Sorry, Wrong Number will recognize a chillingly similar theme in NUMBER, PLEASE, by Sheree Petree. When no one takes her suspicions seriously but the killer, Trish struggles with whom she can trust. As danger closes in, tension runs high. Only when she enlists the help of others will she be able to solve the crime. Petree writes in a compelling style, making NUMBER, PLEASE impossible to put down. A richly developed mystery, NUMBER, PLEASE comes very highly recommended.

A Real Page Turner

A very well written book and a definite page turner. Ms. Petree makes one feel like they are are part of Santa Cruz and "Ma Bell" in the 1960's. Her descriptive writing brings the area and characters alive.You find yourself cheering for Trish Malcom and her phone company cohorts as they defy rules and form a tight knit team to solve a double murder. What a wonderful lesson Trish teaches us in "MMFI",Ms. Petree keeps us dangling and guessing until the end when she finally reveals the villan -- a BIG surprise! A can't put down book.

Reads like a Mary Higgins Clark!

This was a fabulous book! Lots of suspense, good old fashioned heroes and heroines, a dastardly murder, probable villains, an old house by the sea, a telephone booth.... You'll learn lots about working at the telephone company in 1960s Northern California. Rows of operators "manning" the switchboards. Lots of details allowed me to joyfully reminisce about the fashion, foods, and attitudes of the 1960s. For me it was a great vacation read. Crisp writing, shortchapters. Easy to read on a lazy afternoon. Kept me guessing right to the end. And, I was wrong!

clever 1960s amateur sleuth

In 1965 Santa Cruz, California during the worst storm of the season, Trish Malcolm, a less than three-week management hire by Ma Bell, is forced to work the switchboard, devices she knows nothing about. Inadvertently, she accidentally overhears a part of a pay phone conversation placed by someone named Jay Jay. The next night a telephone operator is run down in the parking lot and Trish believes it was no accident but a killer gunning for her.She locates the street where the phone call was placed and sees only one building in the vicinity. There's a sign in the window saying there's a room for rent and Trish decides to take it thinking she can find the killer. During the course of her investigation, somebody shoots at her, kills a tenant living in the building and set fire to the place. Only when she comes out in the open and enlists the help of her co-workers does she have a chance of exposing the killer.Sheree Petree has written a very clever amateur sleuth novel that captures the ambiance of the 1960's America. The heroine is an admirable and determined young woman who acts according to her own convictions, not caring if everyone thinks she's a fool though taking matters in her own hand as opposed the police seems today as foolish, but remember the time and generation involved. The mystery is so well constructed that readers won't guess who the killer is until the author chooses to reveal him.Harriet Klausner