The Midas Murders: A Penny Spring and Sir Toby Mystery

In the 12th entertaining adventure of American anthropologist Penny Spring and British archeologist Sir Toby Glendower (seen most recently in Dirge for a Dorset Druid), Arnold takes her readers to the Greek islands. The sprightly senior-citizen duo has been invited on a three-week tour by their acquaintance, Jules Lefau. While Sir Toby distrusts Lefau's motives and remains in Oxford, Penny accepts and brings along her daughter-in-law (Toby's daughter, Sonya) and two grandchildren. But vacationing among millionaires makes her uncomfortable-especially after the patriarch of the wealthy Marolakis dynasty is found dead on the yacht. The setting provides a tantalizing backdrop for more murders and international intrigue as Penny pursues the mystery on the scene and Sir Toby gets some vital info up at Oxford. Penny's precocious six-year-old grandchildren provide comic relief, and a reclusive billionaire is full of surprises. Although the narrative cruises smoothly along for most of the voyage, it collapses in the final chapters into a disappointing muddle of unlikely scenarios from which Penny and Sir Toby seem oddly distanced. (Dec.)