By: Liza Tully
Libby ebook 46 chapters
Published: 2025
Genre: detective mystery
Wonderful! I've longed hoped to find a writer of mysteries closer to Agatha Christie's style (instead of the pseudo-mystery romances that I've encountered lately).
Olivia Blunt manages to get the job as assistant to Aubrey Merritt, but she doesn't appreciate being relegated to office work and research alone. When Haley Summersworth calls to hire Merritt to find out who murdered her mother, Olivia goes along to Vermont as a driver and secretary. She is itching to get in on the actual detecting, though!
Chapter 2: He trudged slowly, with a swerving waddle in his rear half, because he was still waking up and because his old joints were creaky.
This is in reference to Gilbert's dog Sarge, but the description made me laugh. Sometimes this is how I feel . . .
Chapter 18: The fact remains that any individual who is smaller and weaker, or a member of any marginalized group, runs the risk of being exploited. Why? Precisely because they're smaller, weaker, or at the wrong end of a power imbalance. Humans are just another species of animal. Individuals in a group who have the power to exploit often do exploit.
Merritt and Olivia are talking about equal rights and societal changes. Merritt (in her 60s) is insisting that things like sexual harassment will not completely go away. Olivia (20s) insists that this perspective is discouraging.
Chapter 18: "I'll tell you one thing that will never change. Human nature. Specifically, a human being's propensity for violence, for murder. It's been happening since Cain and Abel, and it will be going strong long after we die."
Merritt is continuing to explain her POV to Olivia.
Chapter 19: There wasn't one jiggle of fat on his long, lean body. He was splendidly, stupendously fit. I could almost hear his metabolism humming under his skin like the quiet engine of a Maserati.
Olivia is describing meeting one of Victoria Summersworth's sons, Neil. He has just gotten to the office from a bike ride and is in his Spandex biking outfit. The language the author uses, the simile, just appeals to me.
Chapter 25: On one occasion she'd informed me, with inexplicable indignation, that when she was in college, students used typewriters. She seemed to think this was a badge of honor instead of one of the many pathetic hardships of the pretechnology era, akin to washing clothes in a creek.
This hit home for me! I've lamented the suffering of trying to produce a term paper on an electric typewriter before I had access to a PC. I don't say it as a badge of pride, though. I know computers have made life easier!
Chapter 26: I could easily imagine young Tristan mumbling vague and contradictory answers, not because he was being evasive but because he was developmentally incapable of understanding his own motives, much less of making them clear and sensible to others.
Olivia's youth does give her a more realistic perspective on interrogating a teen.
Chapter 40: He was a card sharp . . .
I always thought "card shark" was the expression! I had to look this up. Basically, either expression is used but sharp came before shark. There's lots of other history and meanings, but it's not that important to me. This is in reference to Victoria's boyfriend Monty.
Chapter 44: About six feet off my right shoulder, the runt was standing at wide-legged military attention in her appointed spot beside the patio doors. I heard her emit a weird guttural noise for which there is no adequate descriptor in the English language. I will call it a snurf.
The "runt" is referring to Officer Grout, who has had a smirking attitude toward Olivia from the get-go. Their back and forth was humorous. Their mutual disrespect, less so.
Chapter 45: "Eventually life will teach you that people rarely change; they only make slight accommodations under pressure."
Olivia has tendered her resignation and says she can't work for Merritt if she doesn't respect her. Merritt basically says "take me as I am" and indicates she would like Olivia to continue working for her.
I genuinely wasn't sure who the murderer was. I loved the clues and the characters. I enjoyed the many fun details (and I'm already wondering when the next book will be out . . . ). I love that Merritt has her dad's old Bentley convertible and wants Olivia to drive that instead of rusty, noisy "Horace." The "reveal" at the reading of the will was very much like one of Poirot's speeches. I'm glad Olivia made it to her actor boyfriend's opening night and finally talked with her future m-i-l about flowers for the wedding! Lovely, enjoyable story!
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