The Glass Mask

In "Skeleton Key," readers were introduced to Georgine Wyeth, a widowed young mother in California who stumbled across a body and walked -- she emphatically did not fall -- into the arms of Todd McKinnon, a pulp novelist living in the community where the murder took place. It's now a few years later, and the couple are taking a car trip with Georgine's daughter, Barbie. On their way home they stop for what they fondly imagine will be a brief visit with a most peculiar family, only to be sucked into the family's extremely peculiar mystery, involving a disappeared husband, a dead old lady, and mysterious footsteps in the night.

First published in 1944, "Glass Mask" is a fascinating mix of old-fashioned puzzle-mystery and a startlingly modern sensibility that allows Todd and Georgine to travel together, for example, without the benefit of wedding rings. It's a delight.