In the wealthy Gold Coast enclave of Westport, a feud between mystery
writers turns deadly--and retired spy Dasha Petrov must find the real
killer to clear her name.
Once one of the most lethal secret agents in the world, Dasha Petrov has
hunted Nazis, Communists, and one common murderer (in The Sea Glass
Murders, the first Dasha Petrov thriller). But now it's 1991, two years
after that unpleasantness, and Dasha is living a sedate life appropriate
to an elderly widow in wealthy Westport, Connecticut, spoiling her
grandchildren and innocently flirting with two of her neighbors, the
rival mystery novelists
Barnaby Jayne and Michael Aubrey.
The two writers, both wildly successful and many times married,
cordially despise each other. Dasha thinks they're just two silly men
with big egos, but the writers' feud boils over into a bizarre series of
attacks that starts with a blowgun dart and escalates to booby traps and
car bombs. And when Jayne and Aubrey both turn up dead, the evidence
points to one suspect--Dasha herself.
Now Dasha has to once again call upon her cunning mind and capacity for
extreme violence, honed by her younger years as a Nazi-killing partisan
and a top-rank CIA agent. Teaming up with her old allies, Westport
police chief Tony DeFranco and local TV reporter Tracy Taggart, Dasha
sets out to clear her name, find the real killer, and figure out why she
was targeted--while dodging jealous wives, a sleazy tabloid reporter,
child spies, and a fearsome Mafia hit man, leading to a tense and
dramatic confrontation.
Fast-paced and filled with intriguing characterization, Murder This
Closeis a stunning murder mystery with a twisty cerebral plot and
plenty of hard-hitting action.
