Marge Packett’s family gathers together every weekend at their house in the country. It is an eccentric lot who attend these weekly reunions, including: patriarchal siblings Aunt Delia, Aunt Lizzie, and Uncle George, who seem to delight in antagonizing each other and everybody else; Bruce Collyer, future Marine and obsessive compulsive handyman, who now owns the dilapidated family shack; Marge and her own two siblings, past-her-prime sister Elizabeth and snarky brother Randall; and Sonny Saunders, Aunt Lizzie’s mentally defective stepson.

This weekend the guest list also includes Elizabeth’s plump and loud-mouthed best friend Gert, and Marge’s friend, Marina Hayes, who quickly comes to regret her decision to attend the house party when she discovers that she has to sleep in the living room and that the family spends most of their time bickering…in the living room.

Something toxic is lurking in the atmosphere at this gathering of the clan, and it all seems to center around the fact that simpleton Sonny is set to inherit a fortune on the occasion of his 21st birthday on Sunday.

When an old-fashioned porcelain doll disappears from the mantelpiece and begins wandering around the house at night, it seems possible that nefarious plans are in the works. When two members of the household end up brutally murdered, those evil probabilities become a definite certainty.

Marina must wrestle with an uncooperative family, a bumbling police force, and two attempts on her own life before she finally succeeds in unmasking the killer.

The identity of the murderer is hard to pin down in this one, a factor which contributes greatly to the plot. All of the family members are so detestable, it is quite easy to believe that any one of them would be capable of committing the murders.

This is a fun cozy mystery romp that is hampered only by a failing common to the Little novels, an insipidly contrived romance. At the end, poor Marina finds herself facing an impending engagement to that colossal bore Bruce for no apparent reason, and it makes no logical sense. It certainly adds nothing to an otherwise delightful story. What popular, charming, and vivacious young woman like Marina is going to fall for a dull creep who treats her like a servant, mocks her, and is constantly calling her by the wrong name? Bruce is hardly a poster boy for inspiring devotion, yet Marina gets stuck with him even though she has no interest in him at all. I have often wondered if the Littles’ publishers coerced them into including romance in their books against their will. In this case, it is completely unnecessary and greatly hinders the pacing of the story.

Be prepared to endure errors in the Rue Morgue Press edition. ( )