Review by Booklist Review
Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy lives, lavishly, on the top floor of the Pinnacle Hotel in New York and is quite good at finding things. She's also agoraphobic and germophobic, scared to leave the safety of her father's hotel and still devastated by her mother's death when she was just six. Her purse-sized dog, Presley, named for the popular singer of the day, is her constant companion, and she obsessively dresses like her screen idol, Marilyn Monroe. Evelyn and her movie star escort-of-convenience, Henry, attend a gala artist reception where a new painting is to be unveiled--except there is only an empty frame. Then the artist himself turns up dead, with Henry the prime suspect. Largely ignored by the police detective assigned to the case, Evelyn uses her connections with the Pinnacle staff to piece together the truth, proving once again that she does find things. This first novel--and likely the first in a series--effectively evokes the social milileu of the late 1950s, hiding Evelyn's intellect behind a fluffy indulged façade.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Golden's debut, a sprightly series launch set in 1958, Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy--fashionable daughter of the owner of New York City's glittering Pinnacle Hotel--faces the theft of a valuable painting; the murder of the artist; and the possible involvement of her best friend, an actor. Haunted by past trauma but adept at finding lost items, Evelyn enlists the aid of handsome and shady hotel employee Malcolm "Mac" Cooper as she contemplates whether a guest or a staff member may be the perpetrator. Detective Hodgson regards the hotel's security chief as the prime suspect, but Evelyn is not so sure, eyeing individuals such as an obnoxious countess, a mysterious maid, and a prickly hotel manager. Though the detective dismisses Evelyn's sleuthing, even he must concede she may be on to something when her room is ransacked and her life is endangered. With her creation of an intriguing upstairs/downstairs world, Golden channels the spirit of the late Hugh Pentecost's Beaumont Hotel. Readers will be eager to check into Evelyn's next adventure. Agent: Madelyn Burt, Stonesong. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT In 1958, the Pinnacle Hotel in New York City is one of the premier hotels, and Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy is the pampered only child of the owner. After she discovered her mother's murdered body when she was only six, Evelyn suffers from shell shock and agoraphobia, so she seldom leaves the hotel. She does attend parties there, though, including one celebrating the paintings of artist Billie Bell. She's shocked when her best friend, actor Henry Fox, gets into a fight with Bell. That makes him the primary suspect when Bell's latest painting is missing when it's time for the unveiling. Evelyn knows Henry didn't steal it, but the artist is killed before she can investigate. When a hotel employee is arrested for the murder, Evelyn recruits a bellboy, her secret crush, to help her find the killer. After a series of mishaps, Evelyn holds a Hercule Poirot--style reveal to announce the solution. VERDICT Evelyn is quite spoiled, something of an acquired taste as an amateur sleuth. Suggest to readers who enjoyed other hotel-set mysteries with young amateur sleuths, like Nita Prose's The Maid and Audrey Keown's Murder at Hotel 1911.--Lesa Holstine
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Golden's debut dives back into 1958 Manhattan in pursuit of a killer who's stalking the Pinnacle Hotel. Maybe lounging around would be more exact than stalking, since the leisurely felonies kick off with the head-scratching theft of painter Billie Bell's hefty latest canvas during a crowded reception where nobody notices a thing. Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy, daughter of the Pinnacle's absent owner, is concerned when suspicion falls on Henry Fox, an old movie-star friend whose official story is that he's in love with her. She needn't worry, though, since Billie's fatal stabbing with a knife inscribed with head security guard Phil Hall's initials leads to Phil's arrest instead. Convinced that neither of them could possibly be guilty, Evelyn, a shameless clotheshorse who artlessly observes, "I wore whatever Marilyn Monroe was wearing," joins forces with bellhop Mac Cooper, her secret love, and Amelia, the precocious 8-year-old stepdaughter of a visiting French diplomat, to discover the truth. For her pains, her room is broken into and ransacked and the brakes on her Rolls tampered with. But Evelyn, who's always been good at finding things even though she realizes midway through her first case that she's clinically agoraphobic, unmasks the killer at a climactic gathering at which she exults, "Poirot always does this," en route to a nifty final twist that's the high point of the so-so plot. When the heroine's father scolds her at the end for spending so much money, you have to sympathize. A catty yet decorous whodunit festooned with period trappings. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
