One intriguing, taunting request comes from someone who claims to be the “Grandpa Bandit,” a one-man crime spree through the South. The enclosure of a green feather causes Jack’s son, police detective Morrie, to pale a little as the green feather is one bit of information that was not released to the public. Feeling that Morrie has thrown down a gauntlet, Gladdy decides she and the girls will attempt to apprehend the Grandpa Bandit. 

A major hurricane hits Florida and puts a halt to the investigation. It also uncovers a fifty-year-old skeleton, sending Gladdy and gang off in another direction, feeling that they must uncover the skeleton’s identity and figure out how the person died. Also keeping Gladdy busy is sneaking around to canoodle with Jack and helping friend Enya with her recently recurring Holocaust nightmares and trying to mend fences between sister Evvie and ex-brother-in-law Joe.

Once again, Gladdy and her gang provide a fun read with a complex mystery to solve. Gladdy is all about her friends and family and while she wants to move her relationship with Jack forward, she doesn’t wish to conduct a public affair. Inserting many Yiddish phrases into daily conversations gives the ladies even more character and keeps their tone light.  

With concentration camp nightmares and Nazis, this plot has darker overtones than many of Gladdy’s earlier mysteries, but with Gladdy and Jack’s romance finally taking off, there are plenty of good times to balance out the sad. The mystery is carefully plotted, alternating between the past and present, and all loose ends are neatly tied up in the end, except one.  The Grandpa Bandit is still on the loose and still in communication with Gladdy.

Wedding date set, a case in the wings and a handsome Jack all to herself, things couldn’t end better for Gladdy.                                  

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry