Truth Will Tell

At the outset of Oldfield's clever 1920s-era mystery, Lionel Brent, the dapper co-manager of a London art gallery, insists on hiring a female companion for his new wife, Maude, who's the daughter of the late Arnold Cope, the illustrious painter, and her elderly aunt, Biddy Cope. Later, on a family holiday to Hastings, Lionel disappears. When a ransom note reveals that Lionel has been kidnapped, Det. Constable Fleet urges Maude not to pay, because Hastings authorities suspect the kidnapping may be connected to the recent murder—by blows to the head—of a man who tried to deliver a mysterious package to the Brents' Folkestone home. Maude ponders selling her father's paintings to raise money after bankers balk at providing her cash. Oldfield (The Fairfax Legacy ) deftly depicts Maude's slow awakening to the realities of the criminal mind and Aunt Biddy's growing awareness of her frailties as the action builds to a chilling finale. (Oct.)