When Bennis Hannaford, Gregor's ladylove, must call on snooty socialite Margaret Anson in upscale Litchfield County, Connecticut, to discuss an upcoming art exposition, the last thing she expects is to find a dead body in a car. And when the body turns out to be that of Margaret's beautiful young daughter, Kayla, a wealthy heiress who's been billed as the "debutante of the year," the case quickly becomes a media circus, which only intensifies when additional bodies inexplicably turn up in Margaret's garage.

Since the case involves several small-town jurisdictions, and the local police have limited experience with murder, they happily accept Gregor's services as a consultant to oversee the case when Bennis calls on him. Gregor must examine myriad curious events on the night of Kayla's death and determine which are relevant to her murder and which are not. Was the skeleton left in the old cemetery a simple Halloween prank or something more sinister? Why was a stolen Jeep deliberately overturned and abandoned? Did a self-styled psychic really see Kayla's car being chased? Who took two hundred dollars from Kayla's country club account, and why?

While Gregor painstakingly follows the evidence with the help of a none-too-bright local trooper - whose main contribution to crime solving is chauffeuring Gregor from place to place - two more murders further complicate the case. In the meantime, a worried Bennis is secretly dealing with a personal crisis that affects her relationship with Gregor.

As always, Haddam does an excellent job of drawing various characters, no matter how minor - she knows exactly who they are and conveys their personalities, hopes, fears, and insecurities to the reader with just a few well-chosen strokes of her pen. Here, the vivid cast she brings to life includes Annabel Crawford, Kayla's reckless pal and fellow deb; Zara Anne Moss, a loopy New Age kook; Sally Martindale, a desperate divorcee who will do anything to keep up appearances; Peter Greer, Kayla's ambitious hotshot boyfriend; Eve Wachinsky, lonely and dissatisfied as she faces fifty; Faye Dallmer, a feminist and environmentalist; Margaret Anson, a cold-blooded monster-mother; and Henry and Martin Chandling, brothers and cemetery caretakers. Of course, Gregor himself is still solidly grounded in his Armenian neighborhood back in Philadelphia, and references to familiar series characters like Father Tibor and Donna Moradanyan are sprinkled throughout the tale.

The appeal of Skeleton Key lies mostly in the depictions of the characters, and although the mystery is not especially baffling, the plot is more than adequate. This is an all-around solid and entertaining read from a skillful author who always knows exactly what she's doing.

--Eleanor Mikucki