A Multitude of Sins — M.K. Wren

"I'LL BE ON YOUR PATIO AT FOUR O'CLOCK. IF YOU AREN'T THERE, I'LL UNDERSTAND...."

That was the gist of the mysterious plea for help that Conan Flagg found lying on the counter of his Holliday Beach Book Shop. The writer was beautiful Isadora Canfield. a concert pianist and daughter of the late Oregon Senator John Canfield, under whose will she would become a millionaires.

Isadora wanted Conan to find out who was keeping her under twenty-four-hour surveillance, but she became strangely quiet when he asked for details of her father's death and of how she had spent the weeks following. In fact she was disinclined to talk about the family at all-not her blind stepmother or her irrepressible stepbrother or her sadly altered stepsister. Jenny, who had once been a promising artist.

Conan soon realized that he and his gifted client were sitting on dynamite. He thinks he knows who has the matches, but he can't be sure. And proving it is dangerous work, even for a pro like Flagg.