Murder at Marble House: A Gilded Newport Mystery

Emma Cross, a shirttail relative of the Vanderbilts, finds herself at the center of a potential scandal in this solid follow-up to Maxwell’s Murder at the Breakers. When Emma’s beautiful 18-year-old cousin, Consuelo Vanderbilt, disappears immediately after a murder at Marble House, one of the summer “cottages” of the super-rich in Newport, R.I., Consuelo’s domineering mother, Alva, presses Emma to find her before the Duke of Marlborough arrives to ask for Consuelo’s hand in marriage. Did Consuelo run off willingly? Or was she kidnapped? Either way, Emma is pledged to secrecy and has little to go on as her search for answers leads her far from the comforts of upper-class Newport into increasingly dangerous places. The arrest of a Vanderbilt servant doesn’t stop the murders in a mystery whose secrets may be too big to hide. Maxwell again deftly weaves fictional and real-life characters into her story. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Oct.)