Gin and Panic

In a screwball mystery that takes place in the Roarin' Twenties, Maia Chance has given us Lola Woodby and Berta Lundgren. Gin and Panic find them involved in a murder and stolen diamonds.

Lola's goals this week are to mail her sister's wedding invitations and find a caterer for the society wedding of the year. How difficult could that be especially as Lola has a weakness for baked goods, the creamier the better.

Their real business is The Discreet Retrieval Agency, a sort of detective agency. Lord Sudley hires them to retrieve a stuffed rhinoceros' head from Montgomery Hall. He gives them a long involved story about why the rhino head trophy is really his, but his friend Rudyard Montgomery claimed it. Sounds like a easy job and when Lord Sudley presents them with a check, they agree to retrieve the trophy.

They head to Montgomery Hall in Connecticut where a hunting parting is taking place on the estate.

Lola and Mrs.Lundgren bide their time with a gin and tonic observing an array of visiting guests. When they approach the study where the trophy is mounted, they discover the room is filled with rhino head trophies and some unexpected surprises.

Suddenly they hear a pop which sounds like a gunshot, then an argument between a man and a woman, then another gunshot. They race inside to find their host Rudy Montgomery dead of an apparent suicide.

All is not as it seems as Lola and Mrs. Lundgren dash hither and yon between Connecticut and New York to solve the crime. A funny, goofy kind of mystery. Caution: do not read without a pastry or something sweet in your hand!