THE SOCIALITE'S GUIDE TO SLEUTHING AND SECRETS

A third case of murder makes 1958 a banner year for the Pinnacle Hotel in all the worst ways.

Evelyn Murphy, the 21-year-old daughter of the hotel’s owner, rarely leaves the premises because, unlike most socialites, she’s agoraphobic. But that’s alright, because criminal complications keep coming to her. As she gets up to leave the round of champagne she’s shared with Lois Mitchell and three of her underlings at Ladies Love to Sparkle, who hope to recruit her to join them in selling costume jewelry, Lois clutches her throat and dies a few hours later of anaphylactic shock induced by shrimp stock. Marco, the Pinnacle chef, insists that there isn’t any shellfish in his whole kitchen, so it looks like the fatal allergen was deliberately introduced into Lois’ food or drink by someone who was actually on the scene—salespeople Prudence, Ruth, or Veronica, or maybe Evelyn herself, who naturally starts detecting. As if Lois’ death isn’t enough for the Pinnacle to live down, New York Times journalist Dottie Stewart—who seems to have it in for both Evelyn and the hotel she’ll inherit—eagerly reports that Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Taylor, who were married at the Pinnacle 13 years ago and have celebrated their anniversary there every year since, became the latest victims of Manhattan’s Gentleman Thief the night they returned home from their latest visit. Everyone thinks room 1313 is haunted; could it be that the entire hotel is cursed?

A gamely nostalgic valentine that’s less inventive than its predecessors, until the heroine’s climactic abduction to Newark.