{"product_id":"2940015721812","title":"44th and France","description":"“In 1938, as Jim and Jeannie Kosciusko and their brood of six cope with the great depression and anticipate another war, nine year old Pat Kosciusko struggles with multiplication and long division at the Elizabeth Wilder School and is leery of his fourth grade teacher, Mister Cross, who is sometimes strange and often irritable.  Unknown to Pat, Mister Cross’s odd behavior also includes a diabolical play for the charms of Helen Fitzgerald, the married fifth grade teacher in the classroom next door.\u003cbr\u003eTo complicate things, Helen’s husband Bryce, suspecting infidelity, hires private detective C.D. Dick, whose values and morals are often in suspense, to find out for sure.  But C.D. Dick and Bryce are fooled.  The distaff member of Mister Cross’s tryst is not Helen Fitzgerald. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho, then?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConcerned about a smaller commission from Bryce, the unsavory C.D. Dick, gambling that he can intimidate Mister Cross, decides on blackmail to make up the difference.  But Pat Kosciusko inadvertently overhears C.D.’s threat and Cross knows he was listening. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePat is a sudden problem, and Mister Cross is desperate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat now? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStunned, the Kosciuskos ask for help from neighbor and confidant Charlotte Stuart, also a private tutor.  Charlotte contacts a friend and school board member.  Together, they launch a plan that reveals Mister Cross’s true partner and achieves retribution and comeuppance where appropriate.  Charlotte also cooks up a nifty scheme to blackmail the blackmailer.","brand":"Patch Pocket Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146360602864,"sku":"2940015721812","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015721812_p0.jpg?v=1763623466","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015721812","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}