Quote: The sickly sweet
odor grew stronger s they snaked past shelves toward a row of
doors at the end of the stacks that Sheila surmised must face
the street . . . . Reluctantly she followed as Capeletti
inserted his key and pulled open the door. The odor which had
invaded the stacks rolled out to greet them. Simultaneously,
Capeletti and Yusuf went rigid. The older man held out one
hand to ward Sheila off, but she had already seen what they
were seeing. Covering her mouth with one hand, she backed one
step. But the scene was engraved somewhere just in front of
her eyes--a room empty except for one rolled rug. And
protruding from one end of that rug, a woman's blue boot.
MORE
information:
 In this, the first
Sheila Travis mystery. Newly widowed and looking for her first
job, Sheila accepts a position at Markham Institute for
International Studies, an elite training center for young
diplomats and a satellite of the University of Chicago. She
expects to serve as honorary aunt to the students. She doesn't
expect to find a body in their frigid basement.
Sheila's surprises
are just beginning. She arrives home to find her Aunt Mary
perched on her living room couch. Aunt Mary--a petite, wealthy
Atlantan who guards her age as well as she guards her
fortune--is full of southern charm, and has persuaded Sheila's
testy building supervisor to let her in. She's come up North
to visit her niece (and escape Sheila's dad, who was
suggesting she help in his garden). Aunt Mary is indolence
personified, but as she is fond of saying, "I like a
little excitement in my life." Her excitement requires
that Sheila investigate the murder.
Sheila's
interference is not appreciated by Chicago detective Mike
Flannagan, who among other things is a boyhood friend of
Sheila's dead husband from Tupelo, Mississippi. Can these
southerners solve a murder in the frozen North before somebody
puts them on ice, as well?
I
am particularly delighted that this book has been re-issued,
because the first edition, published in 1988 by St. Martin's
Press, was out of print before I completed the second book. A
number of readers have told me they haven't gotten to read it.
Also, because I worked on it longer than the others (13 years,
if the truth is told), it's one of my finest plots. I dare you
to figure out who put that body in the basement!
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