Kirkus Reviews
London's intuitive lawyer-sleuth Robert Forsythe and his not- so-young but crisply efficient secretary Abigail Sanderson (Death of a Doctor, etc.) are vacationing in Vancouver, where Forsythe's been asked by a friend to talk to 70-ish Rebecca Holly. A frail widow, still shaken by the suicide of her ballet dancer granddaughter Thalia, Rebecca has already lost two sons-Thalia's father Reggie, and Kenneth, whose widow Harriet controls the bulk of the huge family fortune and has since married handsome, years- younger Dmitri Pulos. Rebecca is convinced that Thalia was no suicide, even though the girl blamed herself for the accidental death of seven-year-old Iona, daughter of Harriet and Dmitri. Circumstances lead Forsythe to wash his hands of Rebecca's problems, but her death in the course of what appeared to be a robbery creates a sense of guilt in Forsythe that causes him to investigate further-focusing on the Puloses'near-feudal estate and its coterie of easy-living hangers-on. Their dependence on Harriet's bounty provides a rich source of motives for murder, but answers tie in the past as well as the present. Lively, imaginative entertainment-one of this reliable writer's best.

Genre: Mystery