Book Review - The Uninvited Countess

The Uninvited Countess
by Michael Kilian
Berkley Prime Crime, August 2002
272 pages, $6.50
ISBN: 0425185826
Bedford Green (Jazz Age) series #2

It's the roaring twenties. Bedford Green, former society reporter and current art dealer, and his assistant, Sloane Smith, are invited for a weekend at the summer cottage of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in Newport. Sloane confides to Bedford that the Vanderbilts have a problem that involves a Hungarian countess and Gertrude wishes Bedford to investigate. Before heading to Newport, Bedford does some snooping around the city with the help of his actress friend, Tatiana Chase, asking various friends and acquaintances about the Countess Zala--with no results. Bedford has to admit it is difficult to find answers when he doesn't yet know the question.

So Bedford and Sloane drive out to Newport. After an amusing incident of mistaken identity, they eventually arrive at Gertrude's summer home. It is to be a relaxing weekend--sailing with Gertrude's brother, the General, on his luxury yacht and attending a jazz party at the Breakers, the 70-room estate of Gertrudes's sister, Gladys, and Gladys' husband, Count Laszlo Szechenyi. Yet the entire Vanderbilt family avoids the subject of the Countess--the reason Bedford and Sloane were invited to Newport in the first place.

Bedford and Sloane take a side trip to Bristol and find the house of the Countess. No one is at home but Bedford finds a dirty, drunk, barefoot man, sprawled on the lawn. Bedford tries unsuccessfully to elicit information about the Countess from the incoherent man. So it is back to Newport they go.

That evening, they attend the dance party at the Breakers. Sloane has been drinking steadily the entire day and Bedford takes her for a walk along the beach in an attempt to sober her up. They go skinny-dipping in the ocean only to make a grisly discovery--the body of a dead woman.

Bedford sends Sloane back to New York but he is determined to investigate the death of the woman, identified as Margaret Howard. When he is run off the road on his way back to New York, he calls on Tatiana to aid him in his investigation. Tatty and Bedford interview the husband of the dead woman and come away convinced that he is hiding something. Back in New York, Bedford is surprised to find the General waiting for him at the gallery. The General convinces Bedford to work for him to investigate the death and clear the Vanderbilt name. He confides to Bedford the entire story of the Countess. As Bedford continues his investigation, now with the Vanderbilts' blessings, he finds his life in danger as he uncovers one conspiracy after another.

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