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Overview
A Penny Spring and Sir Toby Glendower Mystery: "Arnold serves up an ingenious plot together with a peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous."—Booklist
American anthropologist Penny Spring and British archaeologist Sir Toby Glendower have received a tantalizing invitation. Would they join old friend Jules Lefau on a three-week cruise among the Greek islands? Toby is wary of any invitation from the wily Lefau, but Penny sets off eagerly, children and grandchildren in tow. Arriving, the Springs find an astonishing assemblage of multimillionaires, entire dynasties and paramours included. Soon, however, Penny senses a dark purpose behind the festivities, especially following the sudden, mysterious death of patriarch Demetrios. Then Demetrios's heir is found murdered, his body floating in a swimming pool. Toby, summoned from Oxford, arrives in the Mediterranean just as another attempt on the life of an heir takes place. Clearly, someone is out to eradicate an entire clan, and only Penny and Sir Toby have the wits to pursue a perilous investigation to its alarming conclusion. "A new Margot Arnold mystery is always a pleasure," writes the Chicago Sun-Times. "She should be better known, particularly since her mysteries are often compared to those of the late Ngaio Marsh."
Synopsis
A Penny Spring and Sir Toby Glendower Mystery: "Arnold serves up an ingenious plot together with a peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous."—Booklist
Publishers Weekly
In the 12th entertaining adventure of American anthropologist Penny Spring and British archeologist Sir Toby Glendower (seen most recently in Dirge for a Dorset Druid), Arnold takes her readers to the Greek islands. The sprightly senior-citizen duo has been invited on a three-week tour by their acquaintance, Jules Lefau. While Sir Toby distrusts Lefau's motives and remains in Oxford, Penny accepts and brings along her daughter-in-law (Toby's daughter, Sonya) and two grandchildren. But vacationing among millionaires makes her uncomfortable-especially after the patriarch of the wealthy Marolakis dynasty is found dead on the yacht. The setting provides a tantalizing backdrop for more murders and international intrigue as Penny pursues the mystery on the scene and Sir Toby gets some vital info up at Oxford. Penny's precocious six-year-old grandchildren provide comic relief, and a reclusive billionaire is full of surprises. Although the narrative cruises smoothly along for most of the voyage, it collapses in the final chapters into a disappointing muddle of unlikely scenarios from which Penny and Sir Toby seem oddly distanced. (Dec.)