Amy Patricia Meade, Ghost of a Chance

Ghost of a Chance

Amy Patricia Meade

Midnight Ink, Apr 2007, $13.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 073871092X

In 1935 Ridgebury, Connecticut, is holding its annual carnival sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church and one of the big attractions is the Ferris Wheel. When the seat holding the last person on the ride opens, the man flops to the ground. At first they think he died of a heart attack but mystery writer and amateur sleuth Miss Marjorie McCelland finds a dart near the wheel. She and her friend, British aristocrat Creighton Ashcroft, bring it to the medical examiner. Tests show the man died of curare poisoning and the dart contained blood that matched that of the victim.

Marjorie's fianc e, police detective Robert Jameson, informs her that the victim's name is Alfred Nussbaun and his wife Josie identifies the body. She doesn't seem upset and it isn't too long before they find out he was a bigamist with a wife and two children in Boston. They also learn that Josie is also married to someone else and is running a scam to part Alfred from his money with her husband's approval. Suspects abound with motives aplenty but the identity of the killer will shock everyone, even a clever mystery writer.

Amy Patricia Meade has written a very charming amateur sleuth and police procedural mystery. The author has a way of creating characters that make them seem like the neighbor next door and even the killer will elicit reader sympathy. The triangle that develops between Creighton, Marjorie and Robert is very well-developed and adds an extra dimension to the plot. Romance readers will definitely like this Depression-Era, regional mystery partly due to state of forensic science and the relationship between Creighton and Marjorie.

Harriet Klausner