It’s 1940 and the Thirsty Thirties are over, but you couldn’t tell it by the gang at J. Graham Antiques, where clerk Emma Marsh, her boyfriend Hank Fairbanks, and boss Jeff Graham still trade barbs and examine clues between shots of scotch during those all too frequent periods when they’re not bothered by customers. The trouble starts when her irascible employer is invited to spend a weekend at Amos Currier’s country estate. Emma is only too happy to accompany him, if only to escape from the heat that’s engulfing Boston. Amos wants them to appraise the antiques that fill his lovely home, gathered from the four corners of the world by a seafaring ancestor, but once they arrive, Amos seems far more interested in Emma than in his precious belongings. Emma doesn’t exactly spurn his advances, being just a bit piqued by the cavalier treatment she’s been receiving lately from Hank, who’s set himself up as a private eye, complete with office, secretary and phone. All he needs is a case, and one practically drops into his lap when Amos is found murdered the morning after a party awash in booze. But he’s got competition from the rest of the houseguests when they organize a murder sweepstakes, each of them turning detective after placing fifty bucks in the pot and drawing the names of various suspects. The local police would like to pin the crime, and a second murder as well, on hot-headed Jeff Graham. But loyal Emma knows that her boss is incapable of murder. She figures there must be a perfectly good reason why he’s disappeared and why he tucked Amos’ 18th century silver muffineer in a desk drawer at the shop without telling anyone. So once again Emma embarks on a crime-solving spree that includes several mishaps, including a midnight swim in a crepe-paper bathing suit. Filled with the same sparkling dialog and eccentric characters that made Murder Is a Collector’s Item an absolute delight, this second Emma Marsh novel offers up an unusual approach to crime solving as well as an inside look at the peculiar world of antiques. 

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