From Booklist
This collection by veteran author Beck, one of the more popular writers working in the Agatha Christie tradition, features a novella and four short stories. In the sinister "Rule of Law," a third-generation lawyer enlists the aid of his longtime assistant to exact revenge against a client. The other three short stories and the novella feature Roaring Twenties Stanford coed Iris Cooper as the centerpiece. She unites young lovers ("A Romance in the Rockies"), solves the murder of a Hollywood starlet ("Hollywood Homicide"), and identifies the rightful heir to a fortune ("The Tell-Tale Tattoo"). In the novella, "Peril under the Palms," Iris, along with her lenient chaperone Aunt Hermione and reporter friend Jack Clancy, who talks in staccato sentences reminiscent of newspaper headlines, solves the mystery behind her wealthy friend's mother's disappearance, which occurred when she was just a child. These are old-fashioned puzzlers with an enthusiastic, Nancy Drew-like amateur sleuth and enough clues so that the careful reader can solve the mysteries right along with Iris.
Sue O'BrienCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
Return to the roaring twenties with Iris Cooper and her Aunt Hermione as they encounter murder in paradise in the novella "Peril Under the Palms". Mirth and mystery are included in this novel and the four other stories that appear here.
