Tears of the Dragon

A man stumbles into a party given by a Chinese importer of jade and antiques where Elodie Browne, a widowed mother of four daugthers, is working "for a lark-and extra cash." He utters a single word-mingdow-and dies. Elodie doesn't turn aside. Instead she begins to connect the murder with some odd doings in the office building where she works, events that began one night when the elevator door opened on the wrong floor.. "Baxter takes the cozy a long way from Miss Marple's small village of St. Mary Mead to crime-ridden early 1930s Chicago in this refreshing and exciting series debut....superior mystery fare." -Publishers Weekly starred review