Annie Darling discovers the secret of the Franklin house, but DEATH WALKED IN . . .
Max Darling hasn't been interested in crime since his brush with a seductive young woman put him in danger of losing his freedom. He even refuses to talk to a woman who calls for help and says she is afraid. The caller leaves word she's hidden something in the antebellum house Max and his wife, Annie, are restoring. When Annie finds out, she hurries to the woman's home, only to discover her shot. Annie hears her final whisper as she holds the dying woman's hand.
Evidence links the dead woman to a nearby home, where a fortune in gold coins has gone missing. The gold coins, rare Double Eagles, were stolen from a house filled with visiting family members, twentysomethings hungry for money and several with secrets they must keep. Is one of them willing to kill for a fortune in coins? Or is it the dead woman's high school dropout son? Max is there when the police arrest the son, but the boy's shock upon learning of his mother's death convinces
Max of his innocence. Max and Annie plunge wholeheartedly into the investigation.
But are the coins hidden in Annie and Max's Franklin house? The intruder who shoots at Max seems to think so. And who walks in when Annie discovers the secret of that house?
The reliable Kate Reading does her best with this material, giving the characters warmth and believability. It's the characters themselves who don't engage in this latest in the series about mystery bookstore owner and part-time sleuth Annie Darling of South Carolina. This time the mystery comes right to her when she discovers a gunshot victim and learns that rare coins from a recent burglary have been hidden in her home. The subsequent arrest of the victim's son galvanizes Annie and her husband to start their own investigation. While Reading's delivery is exemplary, this story is too often bogged down by characters and a plot that don't meet the mark. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
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