Peril in Paperback [by] Kate Carlisle
[New York]; Obsidian [2012]
978-0-451-23762-0; $7.99
Bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright has been invited to the quirky Lake Tahoe home of the aunt of one of her friends down the hall in her San Francisco apartment building, Suzie Stein. The aunt, Grace Crawford, has made a name, and a fortune, in the computer games industry, and her home shows her creative ingenuity, complete with secret passages, trapdoors, and arrays of gaming paraphernalia, such as a life-sized mouse cage that can be tripped to fall over one passing through the room. Holograms appear to change the geography of the house, too – and Grace loves to confound some of her guests, especially those of the stuffy variety.
Grace also has a huge library, full of books, both simple modern paperbacks and genuine rare books. Brooklyn has been invited as a friend of the family for the big 50th birthday party Grace is giving herself, but also for her book-binding expertise, since Grace has decided to spruce up her library – having it cataloged and restored. She has also hired an archivist named Nathan to assist in this project.
The guests are a varied lot. Besides Brooklyn and Nathan, Suzie and her Lesbian partner, Vinnie, there are Grace’s brother Harrison, his wife Madge, and a niece, Kiki, who is daughter of the third Crawford sibling, who is not at the party. There is Grace’s friend Ruth, who lives on the grounds, and her lawyer, Stephen Fowler. There are the colleagues that she has worked with – her former partner Peter Brinker and his wife, Sybil, now the CFO, and Marko Huntley and Bella Santangelo, two game designers. Lastly (but by no means least), Grace’s housekeeper and general factotum, Merrilee, is included in the general festivities.
After the first big dinner, Grace announces that she has finished her first novel, and everyone in the room is in it. There are reactions from total joy to consternation amongst the crowd. Each person is given a copy. Brooklyn takes her copy back to her room and enjoys reading it.
But others must not have enjoyed the book so much, for things start to happen. First, Bella dies; then Grace’s maid nearly is killed when the balcony outside Grace’s room collapses; someone pushes Kiki down the main staircase; Ruth behaves oddly; someone sends Brooklyn a dead blackbird in a shoebox; Lawyer Fowler disappears; a baby arrives at the house; Merrilee chucks a baseball at her employer; the corporate thief who nearly destroyed Grace and Peter’s company years ago is revealed; and the killer is apprehended.
Brooklyn’s friend Gabriel shows up just after the first diasaster, and helps her sleuth for clues. In the last couple of scenes, Derek, Brooklyn’s main squeeze, arrives to help, too. He is a member of British Intelligence, and was out-of-the-country for a while, and when Brooklyn, who had hoped he would be at the houseparty, tries to call him after she gets to the party, and a woman answers his phone, indicating that she had claims on the owner of the phone. It has bothered Brooklyn all the time she has been at the house, and Derek apologizes to her. Others in the party make their pairings known, and one person become unpaired, which is one of the best things that could have happened. A nice, neat package of explanations turns up at the end, as should always happen at a houseparty, after the killer is revealed. An excellent cozy with a spunky heroine. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r
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My book.
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