Keeper of the Mill

Claire Breslinsky, a Queens, N.Y., housewife and part-time photographer seen last in Foxglove, awaits a visit from longtime German friend Isolde Donnerwetter. But Isolde phones Claire from Munich to tell her that she isn't coming; instead, she's getting married... to Claire's old flame, Blacky von Ostewald, a plastic surgeon. Resourcefully, Claire convinces her photo editor to fund a visit to Germany, where she will shoot Saint Hildegarde's Mill, site of the wedding. Hearing of Claire's trip, her eccentric neighbor, Iris von Lillienfeld, tells Claire of her uncle's fortune in diamonds buried near the mill when the Nazis were taking over Germany. A murder near the mill sets the intricate plot on its course, during which hidden identities are revealed as Claire encounters unexpected romance and reconciles her mixed feelings about her family and her work. A cast of lively, original characters supports good-hearted Claire, most notably Puffin Hedges, the asexual assistant to a notorious movie mogul, and Fraulein Wintner, a stiff-lipped resident of the mill-cum-hotel. In prose as crisp as starched linen, Kelly deftly constructs a complex plot whose resolution bares residual horrors of Germany's Nazi past. (Nov.)