|t is late winter 1934 in Manhattan when

DeeDee Carlson dies after falling from the

balcony of her apartment at the Ansonia. Her

boyfriend, Chip Stevenson, begs Honoria

Barlow-- his late mother s closest friend, and

his, as well--to look into the circumstances

of DeeDee s death.

Honoria insists that her experience as a

script doctor doesn t qualify her to play

gumshoe, but out of love for Chip, and

against the wishes of her protective, Russian-

born husband, Mikhail, she agrees to do a lit-

tle sleuthing. This commitment

Honoria and her assistant,

Maybelle

takes

, into

some of New York s most elegant dwellings

where they meet the dead girl s mother and

friends. Some of DeeDee s friends adored

her; some loathed her. The young woman

had many secrets, and as Honoria begins to

uncover them, the situation turns as danger-

ous as the murderously cold weather.

With homeless families living in a

Hooverville in Central Park, and the popular

radio shows, restaurants, nightclubs, and

shops, the era is meticulously reproduced; it s

black and white, like a film that s the end-

product of one of Honoria s doctored scripts.

It s Manhattan; it s a clever, unique woman

working her way through a puzzle; and, ulti-

mately, it s a matter of whether Honoria will

survive the experience.