The Midas Murders »

Margot Arnold is the pseudonym of the author of twelve mysteries featuring the globetrotting exploits of Penny and Sir Toby, as well as several novels of romantic suspense. She lives in Hyannis, Massachusetts

A Penny Spring and Sir Toby Glendower Mystery: "Arnold serves up an ingenious plot together with a peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous."—Booklist

Publishers Weekly

In the 12th entertaining adventure of American anthropologist Penny Spring and British archeologist Sir Toby Glendower (seen most recently in Dirge for a Dorset Druid), Arnold takes her readers to the Greek islands. The sprightly senior-citizen duo has been invited on a three-week tour by their acquaintance, Jules Lefau. While Sir Toby distrusts Lefau's motives and remains in Oxford, Penny accepts and brings along her daughter-in-law (Toby's daughter, Sonya) and two grandchildren. But vacationing among millionaires makes her uncomfortable-especially after the patriarch of the wealthy Marolakis dynasty is found dead on the yacht. The setting provides a tantalizing backdrop for more murders and international intrigue as Penny pursues the mystery on the scene and Sir Toby gets some vital info up at Oxford. Penny's precocious six-year-old grandchildren provide comic relief, and a reclusive billionaire is full of surprises. Although the narrative cruises smoothly along for most of the voyage, it collapses in the final chapters into a disappointing muddle of unlikely scenarios from which Penny and Sir Toby seem oddly distanced. (Dec.)