Malice in Miniature: A Miniature Mystery

by: Margaret Grace

Published by: Berkley Prime Crime

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Margaret Grace is really Camille Minichino, and this is the third of the dollhouse mysteries, after Murder in Miniature and Mayhem in Miniature.

Geraldine Porter is a retired schoolteacher in the small California town of Lincoln Point. Her husband died, so she is alone–except her son Richard, his artist wife Mary Lou and her granddaughter Maddie have moved in with her temporarily while their new house is being built. She loves having them nearby, even if it means her work area for creating her beloved dollhouses and miniatures is cramped.

Richard has taken a new job with the Stanford University School of Medicine. Lincoln Point is in the throes of celebrating “the real President’s day” on Feb. 12, when they are having a re-created Lincoln/Douglas debate with actors, and an art exhibit (both Mary Lou and Gerry have contributed works, Mary Lou a painting and Gerry a miniature of the debate). The Rutledge Center, a re-purposed old school, houses artist’s workshops and also the local TV studio.

The body of a young and self-centered artist, Brad Goodman, is found at Rutledge Center the same night as many of the artists’ paintings are slashed. Gerry’s neighbor June Chinn (also the girlfriend of Gerry’s nephew Skip, a police detective) bursts in with the news that Skip has arrested her best friend Zoe for the murder. Zoe was Brad’s girlfriend, and they seem to have security footage of her slashing the paintings about the same time Brad was stabbed.

Mary Lou and Maddie are enlisted to help solve the crime. Could it have been a jealous artist? Brad did get the most prestigious commissions for the Lincoln debate artwork. What about Brad’s jealous ex-wife Rhonda? She is in town using an assumed name. Maddie provides some important clues as she works her computer to research the characters involved. Gerry is also concerned about Maddie’s loneliness at her new school, and June and Skip’s fractured relationship.

You will enjoy this cozy mystery in a large way! And look forward to the next in the series, Mourning in Miniature due out in October.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

Author’s Web site: http://www.DollhouseMysteries.com