The Gladstone Bag by Charlotte MacLeod

I'm fairly certain that I picked this book up at a garage sale. Or a thrift store? I had it on my TBR shelves for about 2 years before I finally picked it up. And it's taken me a LONG time to get through it. Not that it was bad, it just kept putting me to sleep. It's the first in the series for me and, based on the name of the series, I'm assuming that the main character in this book is not the recurring detective. Which I actually really like as a plot conceit (and still do on re-read when I'm working through the series.) Rather, it is Sarah's Aunt Emma who is involved in a mystery.

Emma seems to be your stock New England older woman from a small town; pragmatic, part of the community. She is heavily involved in the local theater and, when a friend asks Emma to act as hostess for a group of artists and writers on an island, Emma takes along the costume jewelry to make some repairs.

Well, on the ferry, Emma is drugged and her bag disappears. But it quickly shows up in the men's restroom. Why was the bag taken? And why has a mysterious man with amnesia shown up on the island? A man who soon dies. And who are are these strange people that have been invited to the island? Including one man who calls himself "Count" and wants to search for treasures and a woman who is supposedly psychic who is suddenly not feeling well enough to come out of her room?

Page 147: "I've noticed the strap's getting a bit chewed" "Aren't we all?"

Four stars

This book came out February 1, 1990

Follows The Silver Ghost

Followed by The Resurrection Man

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own