An audio book.
Lucy Lancester (about 30 years old) researches people's family trees for a living. Pippa Sutton has employed her. Roselyn (Pippa's mother) doesn't want her side of the family history to be investigated. Her great-grandfather was in British Special Ops. At an event in a hotel Pippa owns, an unknown man gives Lucy an expensive pen as he dies, saying "keep them safe".
Lucy's grandpa is in his 90s. He's a pen collector. When Lucy shows him the pen he swaps it for another before she gives it in to the police. Grandpa used to be a spy. The dead man was Hugh, a forensic accountant and conspiracist. The pen held a microdot reader. They need to find the microdot. By subterfuge they get it from Hugh's possessions at the station. It contains a partly solved coded message which can only be solved if they find a particular edition of "The 39 steps". They think that the message is 8 names of descendents of the 8 spies involved with grandpa's mission. The chef (who'd had an affair with Roselyn) was the great-grandson of a spy. He's found dead - stabbed. Grandad has a car accident. A woman who's also on the list is found dead. They discover that someone else has been seeking old editions of "The 39 steps".
Lucy's car brakes fail when she and Pippa are in the car. They survive uninjured. Roselyn has a gambling addition which explains her odd behaviour. Mrs P (employed by Pippa) ties up Pippa and Lucy. She's upset that her ancestors were tainted because her great-grandfather was a traitor, and is taking revenge. Pippa and Lucy are saved by Roselyn and the police. Roselyn had thought that her ancestors were traitors but in fact they were heroes.
Slow, partly because characters explain to other character things that the reader already knows. And "she was visibly limping" needs work.
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