Not a Fair Trade Book, But...
Title of book I have: The Canaan Legacy
Title of new edition you should buy to encourage the author:
Author: Michael A. Kahn
Date: 1988
Publisher: Lynx
ISBN: 1-55802-156-6
Length: 385 pages
Quote: “But men like Graham
Anderson Marshall don’t bury pets in Wagging Tail Estates.”
Rachel Gold wants to
find out what Marshall did bury under
a memorial to “Canaan, 1985,” with a legacy for maintenance in ludicrous excess
of the posh pet cemetery’s standard fees. Rachel is a heroine in the great
Hollywood tradition. She might have been a corporate lawyer if she hadn’t
preferred to abandon the career for an amateur detective adventure, then stay
home and have babies. Not until the adventure is in full swing will it occur to
her that Canaan’s little coffin can simply be opened.
You'll forgive Rachel for taking the time and money to do a lot of things that are more dangerous to her and her friends than looking at a decomposing dog, though, because the wild goose chase she starts turns into a lively, and deadpan-funny, detective story. Instead of the usual tour of yucky criminal subcultures or rich people with horrible secrets, this mystery, like some of Chesterton's, introduces us to intelligent people who have too much time on their hands, because they've not been hired to do jobs that really used their brains, and consequently think of outrageous posthumous pranks to play on their heirs. People who like detective stories not only forgive Rachel; by now they've liked her enough to generate a whole series.
Some day, a battered first edition of The Canaan Legacy may be valuable. Local readers should buy mine by all means. Online readers, please buy Grave Designs and successive titles as new books from Michael Kahn, to show support.
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