Lucy arrives and immediately plunges into Manhattan’s social scene, using her father’s money for added comforts, such as a limousine to be at her beck and call. Margaret has offered Lucy her small guest room until something more suitable can be found and begins to feel responsible for this selfish young woman.

Margaret finds Lucy a job as a personal assistant to Roberta Reeves, the wife of prominent dentist, Dale Reeves. Lucy immediately insinuates herself into the Reeves’s life: she begins to see Dr. Reeves socially and even scopes out their apartment as a possible place to stay since Margaret’s quarters are a bit small for her taste. Lucy also begins to plan a surprise fiftieth birthday party and Roberta goes along with it.

At the party someone falls off the terrace to their death. The police assume suicide, given the events at the party, but Margaret is quick to point out a clue that the police overlooked. The police now suspect there may have been some foul play involved.

There is little suspense in Dying Well. The biggest mystery is whether a crime or murder is actually going to be committed. Lucy is a flighty, but conniving young woman, yet she doesn’t seem inherently evil, but her motives are never explored or revealed.

Appearing in her tenth mystery, Margaret has flashes of substance, but overall drifts through the book, seemingly at the will of others. Even her rocky relationships with detective Sam deVeer drifts along. At first, she is pretty sure the relationship is over, but he calls her, they get together and everything slips easily back in place.

The glamour and glitz of the upper crust seems dull; while there are hints that Dying Well may have been meant to be a satirical look at society, if that was the intention it doesn’t work. A social columnist, Poppy Dill, acts as the role of the Greek chorus, seeing all, reacting and reporting it for those on the outside. This is a disappointing entry into a long-lived series.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry