{"id":6308,"date":"2025-03-13T05:52:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T12:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6308"},"modified":"2025-03-13T05:52:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T12:52:28","slug":"s-k-golden-the-socialites-guide-to-sleuthing-and-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/s-k-golden-the-socialites-guide-to-sleuthing-and-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"S.K. Golden: The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pinnacle Hotel #3<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This adorable series continues to be both adorable and thoughtful.\u00a0 The heroine, hotel heiress and agoraphobe Evelyn Murphy, dresses almost completely in pink and dyes her hair blonde like her idol, Marilyn.\u00a0 It\u2019s 1958 and Elvis rules, as does Evelyn\u2019s spoiled pom, Presley.\u00a0 Evelyn\u2019s almost boyfriend Mac has taken off for parts unknown, and so she\u2019s entertaining ideas of other suitors throughout the book.<\/p>\n

The main story, however, centers on the \u201cLadies Who Love to Sparkle\u201d, women who sell costume jewellery, Tupperware party style.\u00a0 As Evelyn enjoys tea in her hotel\u2019s dining room, one of the sparkle ladies asks her to join them.\u00a0 They share their catalogue, and all share a glass of champagne.\u00a0 So far so good, but then the leader of the group collapses in Evelyn\u2019s lap and later dies in the hospital.<\/p>\n

Evelyn, who never leaves the hotel, decides that this death is a murder, not an accident, and using the many tools she has at her disposal \u2013 including a private detective she keeps on hand \u2013 she begins her sleuthing.\u00a0 The sleuthing does involve her actually leaving the hotel.\u00a0 I\u2019m not exactly sure how Evelyn\u2019s agoraphobia would have been viewed or treated in the 50\u2019s \u2013 my reference here is Betty Draper\u2019s treatment in Mad Men<\/em>, where her doctor reported her progress back to her husband. \u00a0But Evelyn does have a doctor who is encouraging her to change her routine and try and get outside the hotel. And she does.<\/p>\n

Those moments are a triumph, and it certainly aids Evelyn\u2019s sleuthing for her to meet her suspects on their home turf. \u00a0She\u2019s often escorted by Henry, a movie star, who is secretly gay and often uses Evelyn as a beard.\u00a0 The two are genuine friends, however, and Henry is another useful member of Evelyn\u2019s sleuthing arsenal.<\/p>\n

Golden is good at keeping her story percolating, including a possible romance with a lawyer and the new hotel piano player, who is very dashing. Evelyn and her assistant and friend Poppy are also putting together a gala for charity which is more or less the denouement of the novel, in classic golden age style.<\/p>\n

While Evelyn appears fluffy and dumb, she really has good instincts and ways of figuring out what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 She reminds me a bit of Joan Coggin<\/a>‘s creation of Lady Lupin, who marries \u201cdown\u201d (a vicar) and makes her way through village life with a startling amount of perception and humor.\u00a0 Evelyn shares Lady Lupin\u2019s style and charm.<\/p>\n

The mystery part is also quite clever and while the suspect pool is pretty small, Golden manages to create suspense and a bit of a thrill at the end of the novel which also includes a cliffhanger, making any reader more than ready for the next instalment. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pinnacle Hotel #3 This adorable series continues to be both adorable and thoughtful.\u00a0 The heroine, hotel heiress and agoraphobe Evelyn Murphy, dresses almost completely in pink and dyes her hair blonde like her idol, Marilyn.\u00a0 It\u2019s 1958 and Elvis rules, as does Evelyn\u2019s spoiled pom, Presley.\u00a0 Evelyn\u2019s almost boyfriend Mac has taken off for parts … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2031,2030,328,943,2029,10,1391,941,2028],"class_list":["post-6308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1950s-new-york","tag-costume-jewels","tag-cozy","tag-crooked-lane-books","tag-evelyn-murphy","tag-historical","tag-pinnacle-hotel","tag-s-k-golden","tag-the-socialites-guide-to-sleuthing-and-secrets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6310,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308\/revisions\/6310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}