Murder Crossed
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
It's been a long time since Clara Gamadge's school days, but forever young at heart she still has close ties to the old gang and her alma mater, Wolcott Academy. Springtime on campus is usually a time of winding down and wrapping up until suddenly murder and suspense are the only subjects on anyone's mind. Usually when Clara receives a note from Louise Littleton, Wolcott's youthful and sprightly headmistress, it's just to keep in touch, but this time it concerns mysterious circumstances. Margo Llewelyn, formerly an Academy charity student, now a movie star of former and fading glory, has arrived at Wolcott's doorsteps in desperate straits. In a panic, she begs Louise to accept her three little girls as boarding students so she can immediately get out of the country. Louise has encountered parents anxious to part with their children before but this seemed especially odd. When a dead body breaks up commencement ceremonies it's time for Clara Gamadge to put the pieces together. What misfortune had caused Margo's shining star to sink so low? Would more blood tarnish Wolcott's ivy-covered walls? Only a super sleuth like Clara could sift through the avarice, the malice and the motives to solve a murder like this and save the good name of her beloved Wolcott Academy too.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her fifth appearance, 70-year-old widow Clara Gamadge (Working Murder) returns to the Massachusetts boarding school of her youth to advise and help Louise Littleton, who is being asked a favor by a notorious alum. Former superstar actress Margo Llewelyn, who is having trouble finding work because she's "difficult, drunk, and demoralized," wants to enroll her three daughters, each of whom has a different father, in the school. Margo shows up on campus with the girls, expecting to leave them at that very moment. Celestra Riondo, Louise's secretary, who has a history of mental illness, is star-struck with excitement by the visit. Three months later, after Margo is stabbed to death on the school grounds, her three former husbands arrive to pick up their daughters. Sensing a fight and not sure one of the men isn't the murderer, Louise, who has been named the girls' custodian, sends them to a remote Vermont convent for safety. Clara and Louise are stunned when Celestra confesses and when one of the husbands proves that the body is not Margo's but that of her movie stand-in. Where is Margo? And why did she hurriedly drop her children at the school? Clara is an entertaining presence, but Boylan's convoluted plot makes this cozy less exciting than some of Clara's previous outings.
