THE MIDAS MURDERS

by Margot Arnold ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 8, 1995

Their twelfth crime-solving adventure (Dirge for a Dorset Druid, etc.) finds American anthropologist Dame Penny Spring, a lecturer at Oxford, and Sir Tobias Glendower, her archaeologist partner, with an invitation from old acquaintance Jules Lefau, a New Orleans millionaire, to cruise the Greek islands on his yacht Silver Spray. The trip is to celebrate the engagement of Lefau's son Vincent to Melissa, granddaughter of billionaire tycoon Demetrios Marolakis. Sir Toby, in the grip of gout and writer's block, and suspicious of Lefau's true motives, demurs, but Penny, her daughter-in-law Sonya (Sir Toby's daughter) and twin grandchildren, along with Lefau's daughter Juliette and her children, board Silver Spray. It's rapidly apparent that more than pleasure cruising is going on here, as Melissa's ailing grandfather dies, on his own island--natural causes? Then her father Georgiou is fond dead in Silver Spray's swimming pool. Sir Toby, alarmed by these events and by some input from Secret Service contacts, quickly joins the yacht party. He and Penny work to make sense of Georgiou's killing and the other murders that follow, as well as the puzzling presence of other shipping moguls, rumors of arms trading and secret ship passages, the hysteria of Georgiou's widow Olympia, and a host of other enigmas--all while trying to ensure the safety of their family. Their success is more than most benumbed readers will achieve, in this tangle of family relationships, political agendas, hidden identities and unpronounceable names. Smoothly written but ultimately a bore.

Pub Date: Dec. 8, 1995

ISBN: 0881503940

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Foul Play/Countryman

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995

Categories: FICTION