Margins
The Shadow of the Palms
1980
First Published
2.75
Average Rating
216
Number of Pages

Part of Series

A call from Henry Brammin, Anna Peters’s old mentor at New World Oil, sends the proprietor of Executive Security down to Florida’s Gulf Coast for a brief working vacation. Brammin wants to know why his nephew suddenly has money for an expensive sailboat and a fancy antiques shop. The answers involve Vlad Sebastian, a wealthy and reclusive art collector with a socially ambitious daughter, a questionable past, and some dubious employees. Anna’s efforts to discover if Brammin’s nephew is one of them brings danger both to her and another old friend, the newly sober and newly married John Hillary, the reporter last seen in The Big Payoff . Hillary, who has his own interests in the mysterious Mr. Sebastian, provides entree to the Sebastians’ glamorous social circle—and provokes a variety of domestic complications. Anna’s attempt at a vacation is soon in ruins, as she and John Hillary find there are plenty of reptiles in the lush and glamorous gardens of south Florida.
Avg Rating
2.75
Number of Ratings
4
5 STARS
0%
4 STARS
0%
3 STARS
75%
2 STARS
25%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Janice Law
Janice Law
Author · 17 books

Janice Law (b. 1941) is an acclaimed author of mystery fiction. The Watergate scandal inspired her to write her first novel, The Big Payoff (1977), which introduced Anna Peters, a street-smart young woman who blackmails her boss, a corrupt oil executive. The novel was a success, winning an Edgar nomination, and Law went on to write eight more in the series, including Death Under Par (1980) and Cross-Check (1997). After Death Under Par, Law set aside the character for several years to write historical mysteries The Countess (1989) and All the King’s Ladies (1986). After concluding the Peters series, she wrote three stand-alone suspense novels: The Night Bus (2000), The Lost Diaries of Iris Weed (2002), and Voices (2003). Since then, Law has focused on writing short stories, many of which appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Fires of London (2012) is her most recent novel. She lives and writes in Connecticut.

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