Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything more than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest. But she needed a job when her husband announced a move to Chicago with his pregnant girlfriend. A meeting with the local newspaper publisher netted her an offer to be the Managing Editor.

She relies on her friend and police reporter, Clarice Stamms, for support and stories. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator’s family. Research into the family uncovers a shadowy figure, also a World War II veteran, linked to the Senator.

The third victim at the hotel is a surprise. It’s a cousin of the current owner—and grandson of the Senator—who’s fallen, or been pushed, from the attic.

Visiting the hotel, Amy and a friend meet an urbane European, a Holocaust survivor who’s spent sixty years tracking down Nazi loot. Amy learns that three people have just died to keep the secret of a stolen da Vinci drawing.