A KILLER CLUE

A wealthy North Carolina man and his personal librarian make an odd but effective detective team.

Cameron Clewe has been searching for the identity of his birth father with no luck. Brought up by a stepfather who left him the beautiful Aircroft estate and a great deal of money, Cam finds life joyless without knowledge of his biological father. Jane Hunter, who handles his library, and personal assistant Lauren Walker somehow keep him on track until Eloise Anderson, an antiquarian bookseller from Chapel Hill, arrives to ask Cam and Jane, who’ve already solved one mystery, to help prove that her mother—who recently died in prison—was innocent of murder. The sleuthing duo take on the case even though Eloise may be hiding things that make her mother look guilty. When Eloise herself is arrested for the murder of Det. Bruce Parker, who was in charge of her mother’s case, few believe that she’s innocent. But Cam pays her bail, hires a lawyer, and takes her into his household while he and Jane search for another suspect. Parker had been looking for a book in Eloise’s storeroom, a book that may provide a motive for murders now and in the past. Jane is also searching for the identity of a woman whose photo was found in Aircroft’s attic along with a drawing of her. A servant who never knew her last name identifies her as Lily, the love of Calvin Airley, son of the estate’s former owners. Both the real motive for murder and the identity of Cam’s father are shrouded in secrets from the past.

The finely drawn characters are the stars in this complex batch of mysteries.