Keeper of the Mill
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In search of hidden diamonds, Claire returns to the German countryside
At the height of World War II, Iris is a young Jewish girl living in Munich. One night, while on a double date, she lets herself get talked into staying out far past curfew. When she returns home, her family has disappeared. With her uncle Oswald, Iris races for the frontier, pausing at Saint Hildegard’s Mill to bury the family diamonds. She escapes to the United States, where she lives quietly for five decades. She will never return to look for her diamonds, but she has a friend who will.
Claire Breslinsky lived in Munich during her wild, carefree youth, but those days are long gone. When an old friend invites her to a wedding at Saint Hildegard’s Mill, Claire demurs—until Iris tells her about the hidden fortune that awaits her. Claire returns to Munich to attend the wedding, take some pictures, and do some light treasure hunting. But she will end up investigating a murder instead.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Claire Breslinsky, a Queens, N.Y., housewife and part-time photographer seen last in Foxglove, awaits a visit from longtime German friend Isolde Donnerwetter. But Isolde phones Claire from Munich to tell her that she isn't coming; instead, she's getting married... to Claire's old flame, Blacky von Ostewald, a plastic surgeon. Resourcefully, Claire convinces her photo editor to fund a visit to Germany, where she will shoot Saint Hildegarde's Mill, site of the wedding. Hearing of Claire's trip, her eccentric neighbor, Iris von Lillienfeld, tells Claire of her uncle's fortune in diamonds buried near the mill when the Nazis were taking over Germany. A murder near the mill sets the intricate plot on its course, during which hidden identities are revealed as Claire encounters unexpected romance and reconciles her mixed feelings about her family and her work. A cast of lively, original characters supports good-hearted Claire, most notably Puffin Hedges, the asexual assistant to a notorious movie mogul, and Fraulein Wintner, a stiff-lipped resident of the mill-cum-hotel. In prose as crisp as starched linen, Kelly deftly constructs a complex plot whose resolution bares residual horrors of Germany's Nazi past.
