In Sklepowich's well-paced ninth Venetian mystery (after 2008's Frail Barrier
), literary biographer Urbino Macintyre, who's assisting his friend Contessa Barbara with an exhibit devoted to fabric designer Mariano Fortuny, visits the Palazzo Pindar, the home of Barbara's eccentric cousins. The palace houses a museum, including letters from Fortuny to the Pindars. Urbino turns sleuth after the contessa finds one of her cousins, Olimpia, dead at Palazzo Pindar with stab wounds in her chest. Kneeling next to the body is Mina, Barbara's personal maid, holding a bloody pair of scissors and crying, “I killed her! I killed her!” Convinced Mina is innocent, Urbino investigates all the members of the Pindar family, a goodly number of suspects, in an effort to unmask Olimpia's true killer. Sklepowich dramatically juxtaposes the splendor of Venice against the dark deed of murder. (Sept.)
