70. Anything Goes by Jill Churchill (Historical mystery) 272 p.

Two years after the Crash and the suicide of their formerly-wealthy father, Robert and Lily Brewster are just scraping by, like so many others during the Depression. Living in a horrible, cramped apartment in New York City, the news that they have inherited almost two million dollars and a mansion in a small town seems too good to be true. And it is, because there’s a catch: before they can inherit, they must live in the house for ten years, and manage to support themselves through their own hard work and ingenuity.

Untrained to any sort of trade or career, the Brewsters aren’t sure they can fulfill the conditions of the will, but they’re determined to try. Soon after they move in, they discover that their benefactor, Great-Uncle Horatio, may actually have been murdered! Not wanting to spend their next ten years in Voorburg under suspicion, they decide to investigate the crime themselves.

This is a re-read for me. It’s the first in the Grace & Favor series, which I enjoy quite a bit, more for its characters and descriptions of life during the Depression than because of its mysteries. This is a nice, cozy, rainy-day kind of book.

Pages read: 20,219

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Grace and Favor, Jill Churchill