Maria Magliani arrives home to a frantic call that her pizza restaurant in on fire. The saucy, recently-widowed entrepreneur speeds downtown to suspicious, smoldering ruins. On the scene, she encounters rugged, handsome Fire Marshall Clancy McClavey. The two exchange numbers. Clancy phones a few days later for two reasonsto report the findings from the fire, and to ask her out. But before their big, Saturday night date occurs; Maria discovers that she is at the center of two mysterious murders. A blend of faith, friends, and family speckle the battlersometimes funny, but always engaging!

Told through the eyes of a young boy, ‘By the Scruff of the Neck’ begins its tale in post-WWII Holland of the 1940s and gives a candid and often humorous account of a Catholic childhood and the dynamics of family life. In contrast, the impact of the German occupation of Holland provides an insight into the privations of the time, as well as the subsequent decision to migrate to Australia in 1952.