Iron Spiders, The Miles Standish Rice Mysteries

A bizarre death on an isolated Florida island requires a unique detective in this Golden Age mystery by the author of the Duncan Maclain series.

Young electrical engineer Donald Buchanan is excited to be working again—and to spend his winter in Florida instead of New York. Instead of waiting tables, he’ll be running a small power plant on Broken Heart Key, a private island owned by eccentric billionaire Aaron Tuckerton. Never mind his boss’s strange warning about people wanting him dead . . .

But trouble quickly follows Don to paradise when a servant mysteriously jumps to her death in what she should’ve known were barracuda-infested waters. Then a mysterious necklace known as “the Iron Spider” is discovered in her room. Don believes there needs to be an inquest, but Aaron phones for a special investigator instead.

The next morning, Don is greeted by Miles Standish Rice. With his schoolboy attitude and voracious appetite, “Stan” may not seem like the type to bring a killer to justice. But as things take a turn for the deadlier on Broken Heart Key, it becomes clear to Don the PI is his only chance of getting off the island alive . . .

Baynard Kendrick was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, the holder of the organization’s first membership card, and a winner of its Grand Master Award.