When an old Jesuit Mission House in Carthage, Ohio, is nominated for National Landmark status, the committee sends a private investigator to get to the bottom of the hostile letters they’ve received. Arriving in Carthage is Marian Warner, a New York PI whose life was dented by the bombing death-years ago-of her radical boyfriend. The only man with any staying power in her life is Charlie Levitan, the editor of the Carthage newspaper, whose relationship with her includes a long personal history. The day before Marian arrives, an older man nobody in town recognizes turns up dead in the Mission House.
Soon Marian discovers that the identity of the murdered man implicates every key player in the fight over the fate of the Mission House. But for her, it gets personal when Charlie’s lover, a local jazz singer, is found murdered on the property of a powerful landmark preservationist, Jack Girard. What connects the two deaths? Why is a key witness avoiding her? How can she discover the truth in a town where hostilities go public, but secrets are so closely guarded? When Marian finally unmasks a cunning killer, it’s at the expense of the defenses it’s taken her years to erect.
Mengenai Pengarang
Shelley Costa’s work has been nominated for both the Edgar and Agatha Awards and has received a Special Mention for The Pushcart Prize. In addition to several mystery novels, she is the author of short stories in The Georgia Review, North American Review, The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Blood on Their Hands, and Odd Partners. With a Ph.D. in English, Shelley was on the Liberal Arts faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Art for nearly twenty years.