Does a hotel guest who vanished without a trace hold a piece of the puzzle? Or does it have to do with the Polish count and his family fleeing the start of WW2 in Europe? Could the cops be right that it’s all a trick devised by her client?
More at ease in Dayton, Ohio’s, streets and alleyways than in the posh Hotel Canterbury, and chafing under the need to hide her true occupation, Maggie threads her way through an unfamiliar array of suspects: Celluloid luminaries in town for a hush-hush project; an international Lothario whose shady local past she unearths; the count’s embittered valet.
Meanwhile, preparations for a visit by FDR preoccupy the city’s police. The Irish cop who has tried to win Maggie suddenly departs for Chicago. Alone and bruised, Maggie faces adversaries whose motives stun her… and a killer who will stop at nothing.
A dash of humor leavens this historical mystery series with its early 20th century hard-boiled atmosphere and a flinty detective who wields her Smith & Wesson as skillfully as her emery board. Previous Maggie Sullivan mysteries are No Game for a Dame, Tough Cookie, Don’t Dare a Dame, and two short stories.
The story of a valuable bracelet, of diamonds, stolen from a Hindoo idol by a British soldier in India. This bracelet becomes the possession of Colonel Thorndyke. A little later he is wounded and returns home to England. The secret of the bracelet is told to the Colonel’s brother, a country squire, and the treasure is left to younger members of the Thorndyke family.
