Mix-up in Miniature: A Miniature Mystery

Near the start of Grace’s enjoyable fourth miniature mystery (after 2010’s Monster in Miniature), retired teacher Geraldine “Gerry” Porter succeeds in persuading bestselling romance novelist Varena Young to donate “her enormous museum-quality dollhouse, a Georgian mansion,” to the Lincoln Point, Calif., library auction. Varena herself lives in “an enormous mansion,” where on a later visit Gerry overhears a heated argument between Varena and an unseen man the maid has told her is Varena’s brother. When someone bludgeons Varena to death, the police interrogate Gerry, who is upset to learn that the records show Varena had no living brother. Gerry turns for aid in clearing her name as a murder suspect to her precocious 11-year-old granddaughter, Maddie. Together they retrieve a crucial clue from a hidden passage in a mysterious antique dollhouse. Endearing characters help make this cozy a winner. (Apr.)