Ex-debutante Madeline Dare is a fallen WASP with a stinging wit.The one-time newspaper reporter seems to find murder and mayhem wherever she goes.

In this lively third offering (after The Crazy School, 2008), the mordant Dare discovers, in a New York cemetery housing her ancestors, the remains of what was clearly an abused boy.What cruel soul could have beaten three-year-old Teddy Underhill to death?High on the suspect list are the boys deadbeat mother, Angela, and her equally unsavory boyfriend, Albert, who claims the child wandered off while he was taking a nap.

Madeline finds herself immersed in the case, while her husband, Dean, spends his days working for Christoph, a neo-Nazi businessman.(Christophs wife, Astrid, gives Madeline a copy of Mein Kampf as a gift.) Along the way, Madeline gets chummy with a homicide cop named Skwarecki, who shares her endearingly cynical outlook on life.As in previous entries, Shamus Awardwinner Read offers a steady dose of suspense and plenty of clever commentary on the caprices of the upper crust.