cover image The White House Pantry Murder: An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery

The White House Pantry Murder: An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery

Elliott Roosevelt. St. Martin's Press, $15.95 (231pp) ISBN 978-0-312-00202-2

Eleanor Roosevelt proves the undoing of Nazis who penetrate the White House in her son's fourth mystery. Roosevelt revives the tense Christmas season in 1941 after Pearl Harbor, when Prime Minister Churchill and his retinue were the President's guests. Their conferences on strategies are incorporated into the fictional events in which a corpse is discovered stuffed into the White House refrigerator. The Secret Service, headed by agent Deconcini, officially investigates, but the First Lady solves the case, identifying the killer of the first victim and a second found in the mansion. The suspects grilled by Deconcini include pretty, sexy Bonny Battersby, secretary to Harry Hopkins, and other intriguing characters, real and invented. The clever tale is also colored by Churchillian oratory. Mystery Guild dual selection. (March 23)