Martha Grimes returns to her twelve-year-old heroine, Emma Graham, in the previous books Hotel Paradise, Cold Flat Junction, and Belle Ruin. Emma continues her investigation into the strange disappearance of the four- month-old Slade baby from the Belle Ruin Hotel more than twenty years before. The sudden appearance in town of the baby's father, Morris Slade, makes her even more determined to learn the truth. Then a mysterious drifter named Ralph Diggs appears at the Hotel Paradise, looking for work, ingratiating himself with everyone there. Everyone, that is, except Emma. None of the books seem to be able to capture the wonder of the first book in this series, and that includes this book. Emma at times acts/talks like an adult, at other times like she is younger than 12. And the location (somewhere in lower Maryland near W.Va.) and the time (maybe 1950's?) seems a bit off-putting.