Julia has lived in London for many years and has begun to make her way as a small independent publisher. She needs the inheritance money to make her dream come true. On the ship traveling to New York, Julie is reacquainted with an old friend named Glennis Rankin. Glennis practically adopts her and takes her on a whirlwind tour of New York including parties, a seance, a suffragette rally and dinner with her family.
During a dinner party, Madame Sosostris performs her seance and at the end she says she seems someone with "lovely eyes, orbs of sapphire" who cannot find her way. Suddenly Glennis leaps up and screams "Naomi." The room erupts into near panic sending glasses tumbling to the floor and a number of crashes and thuds in the dark. Glennis urges her brother to check on the welfare of their sister Naomi.
When Glennis receives the call that Naomi is dead, apparently by her own hand, she refuses to believe it and goes so far as to say her brother killed her. Julia has her own issues with which to deal, and she doesn't want to get involved in a family affair, but Glennis pleads with her and she relents. Naomi had been a leader in the suffragette movement, to the consternation and mortification of her family. Could this be what lead her to take or life or did someone kill her?
While she waits for her brother's attorneys to come to a judgment on the contested will, Julia decides to investigate. In a rash moment, provoked by her brother, she bets her inheritance on her ability to solve the crime.
This Jazz Era mystery portrays the struggles of women - married or unmarried - to overcome discrimination of all forms. It is an excellent look at life in the 1920s.
Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
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