By turns audacious and lionhearted, tender and vulnerable, Lilly Bennett, a no-longer-so-young Wyoming belle with degrees in criminology and toxicology, is a private investigator and the marshal of Bennett's Fort, a town owned literally lock, stock and barrel by her cousin. Decked out in Chanel pumps and St. Laurent suits, Lilly is an unlikely but highly efficient detective—as she proves when confronted with solving the murder by poisoning of Cyrus Vaile, the incredibly rich, disgustingly lecherous old patron of the local repertory theatre company.

It happens at a cocktail party in his spectacular downtown Roundup penthouse, in full view of Lilly and most of his repertory "family," any one of whom might have a pretty good motive for wanting Cyrus dead. And with so much flamboyant emotion obscuring the facts like a theatrical fog, it isn't easy for Lilly to cut through the glycerin tears and get at the unvarnished truth.

In Lilly, her eccentric extended family (who made their money in two black crops—oil and Angus), and her dashing suitor Richard Jerome—an ex-Morgan banker turned opera impresario and professional team-roper—Marne Davis Kellogg has invented a fascinating cast of ongoing characters. In Tramp she has created a witty, twisty mystery that shows off each of their talents to perfection.