This is the second Myrtle Hardcastle amateur sleuth cozy and we loved it! She goes on holiday to get away from dead bodies, supposedly, and promptly runs into -- Eureka! -- a woman investigator. It's fuel to Myrtle's career fire aspirations, and she sticks to the older woman like glue, ditching her governess to learn all she can about being an insurance investigator.
The woman is protecting a tiara fitted with priceless jewels on the train ride to the summer resort hotel. But the resort's owner takes the tiara out of its glass, protective case, there's a power outage on the train and poof! It's gone.
Of course, this is far from what Myrtle's father intended her vacation to be, and her governess may get in hot water again for putting Myrtle so perilously close to a dead body -- the investigator's, unfortunately. The woman is found dead, by Myrtle, in the baggage coach.
The adults, and in particular Myrtle's garrulous Aunt who's got a crush on the resort owner and may have sunk quite a bit of money into his resort, don't think Myrtle can solve the mystery. But that's exactly what she and her cat, Peony, set out to do.
I won't reveal what they discover, or how they solve the murder. Read and enjoy this cozy mystery. It's a lot of fun and we can't wait to see who Myrtle discovers dead next!
This is the third Myrtle book and we think the author is just hitting her stride with this 12-year-old amateur sleuth!
This time Myrtle is thrust into a murder that stems from an unsolved mystery ages ago involving local Mercantile shop owner, Mr. Lieghton, when he still worked as a professor at the local university.
At the unveiling of the town Christmas display, the one Leighton's worked so hard on for weeks, he's found dead in his chair, stiff in a position of sipping his tea, and has left a note: "We owe Asclepius a chicken." And there are discrepancies in the Christmas display that Myrtle notices immediately. The well is painted black. There are olives near the miniature bell tower. The details spook a number of residents, including the Munjals (the coroner), who spot the olives and leave in a huff.
It turns out, Leighton's career as an archaeology professor was ruined after the disappearance of a young girl, Olive Blackwell, from the bell tower, and his murder and the display re-opens the case. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the bell tower is re-opened for the first time in ages, and a young woman and musician is planning concerts for the town.
Can Myrtle figure out who wanted to exact revenge on Leighton so many years after Olive vanished? And what exactly happened to Olive? Her body was never found. And how was Myrtle's deceased mother involved in the girl's disappearance?
It's a riveting tale, and we can't wait for Myrtle's next encounter unraveling the mysteries of the dead!
