An audio book.
Mikki Lincoln (widowed, childless, about 70) has bought the house she grew up in, in Lenape Hollow, New York State. It's about to celebrate its 225th anniversary and Mikki (a freelance editor) has been asked to update (without payment) the script of the 200th anniversary pageant. It's a bigger job than she first thought - style, correctness, and political correctness are issues, and there's no electronic version. The local history comittee is involved. At their centre, human bones are found in a walled-up chimney. The chimney was walled up 25 years before by a builder who soon after had added a wall to Mikki's house.
The body is the earlier pageant's author - Grace. She was young, of easy virtue. Perhaps a jealous wife killed her. Baxter, who was on the committee then, had political ambitions. Perhaps she blackmailed him. When the police inquiry stalls, Mikki takes over. She wasn't in the town at the time but went to school with some of the suspects. Greg, who's providing the venue for the pageant, is involved with shady affairs. He's repaired an amphitheatre for use, adding wheelchair/mobility-scooter access. A young man, Luke, turns up, claiming to be a distant relative of Mikki, and is keen to audition for a part in the pageant. Maybe Grace was his mother?
Diego is the director - he'd got a teaching colleague sacked when he discovered that the colleague was watching child porn at school.
Baxter is murdered. Diego has a car accident and breaks a leg. So Mikki has to be the director. Luke is an able assistant. She discovers that actually he's quite well off. One of Grace's lovers had a distinctive, intimately located birthmark. Mikki is assaulted and put in a car trunk. She escapes while the car is in motion and makes her way home. The mayor is waiting outside. An alarm scares him away and soon he's arrested. He'd started having an affair with Grace when he was in his 30s and she was at school. His wife knew, but she wanted her husband to succeed in politics, so turned a blind eye. Her husband didn't know that she knew. He has the strange birthmark - a question mark that becomes an exclamation mark when he has an erection.
There are many red herrings.
No comments:
Post a Comment