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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Arnold, M. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
American anthropologist Penny Spring and British archaeologist Sir Toby Glendower have received a tantalizing invitation. Would they join old friend Jules Lefau on a three-week cruise among the Greek islands? Toby is wary of any invitation from the wily Lefau, but Penny sets off eagerly, children and grandchildren in tow. Arriving, the Springs find an astonishing assemblage of multimillionaires, entire dynasties and paramours included. Soon, however, Penny senses a dark purpose behind the festivities, especially following the sudden, mysterious death of patriarch Demetrios. Then Demetrios's heir is found murdered, his body floating in a swimming pool. Toby, summoned from Oxford, arrives in the Mediterranean just as another attempt on the life of an heir takes place. Clearly, someone is out to eradicate an entire clan, and only Penny and Sir Toby have the wits to pursue a perilous investigation to its alarming conclusion.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In the 12th entertaining adventure of American anthropologist Penny Spring and British archeologist Sir Toby Glendower (seen most recently in Dirge for a Dorset Druid), Arnold takes her readers to the Greek islands. The sprightly senior-citizen duo has been invited on a three-week tour by their acquaintance, Jules Lefau. While Sir Toby distrusts Lefau's motives and remains in Oxford, Penny accepts and brings along her daughter-in-law (Toby's daughter, Sonya) and two grandchildren. But vacationing among millionaires makes her uncomfortable-especially after the patriarch of the wealthy Marolakis dynasty is found dead on the yacht. The setting provides a tantalizing backdrop for more murders and international intrigue as Penny pursues the mystery on the scene and Sir Toby gets some vital info up at Oxford. Penny's precocious six-year-old grandchildren provide comic relief, and a reclusive billionaire is full of surprises. Although the narrative cruises smoothly along for most of the voyage, it collapses in the final chapters into a disappointing muddle of unlikely scenarios from which Penny and Sir Toby seem oddly distanced. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
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.
Booklist Review
Arnold's latest entry in her engaging Spring-Glendower mysteries sends Dame Penelope Spring off on what's supposed to be a relaxing family vacation. An old American friend invites the Springs on a cruise among the Greek Islands, but when Penny, with children and grandchildren in tow, arrives in Greece (minus Sir Toby, who's sulking back in Britain with a case of the gout), she finds herself at the center of yet another intriguing mystery. Some of the world's wealthiest, most powerful men have converged on the home of Penny's host, Demetrios. Then Demetrios turns up murdered, his heir is killed, and suddenly Penny's quiet vacation turns into a murder investigation. Arnold serves up an ingenious plot together with a peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The only drawback to this otherwise pleasant read is that there are so many characters--high rollers, family members, wives, fiancees, wealthy scions, servants, investigators--it's sometimes hard to keep track of who's who. --Emily Melton