Their parents threw a Gatsbyesque lavish party, distributed the last of the once substantial family property among their three daughters then fled to a tax haven leaving their prominent Main Line Philadelphia life behind. Nora received the Bucks County family farm along with its hefty tax lien. In order to pay the taxes, she sold several acres where Michael Abruzzo’s muscle car dealership is now located. Nora is uncomfortable about Michael’s questionable family business connections.

Needing to support herself, Nora was given a job as a society column writer in a Philadelphia newspaper by an old family friend, Rory Pendergast. Because Nora tends to faint easily, she does not drive, and Rory has contracted with Michael, who operates a limousine service to supply a car and driver for her. Head society columnist Kitty Keough resents Nora’s presence and tries to give her the least desirable assignments.

Rory Pendergast throws a party at his elegant house to celebrate the newspaper’s hundredth anniversary. The extensive guest list contains many important Philadelphians as well as persons associated with the newspaper. When Nora goes to Rory’s room to convince him to rejoin his guests, she discovers his body. The police determine he has been suffocated and suspect his long-time female companion Peach Treese.

Convinced that Peach cannot be the guilty party, Nora begins an independent investigation. She discovers that in addition to Rory’s more conventional - and very valuable - art collection he collected erotic art. Her sister Emma delivers a rare volume of Chinese erotic art that Libby had been holding for Rory. To add to the strange happenings, Libby is mysteriously missing, and her husband is vague on her whereabouts.

How to Murder a Millionaire, a Blackbird Sisters mystery, has the hallmarks of the debut novel in a new series. So much attention is given to establishing characters and relationships that the supposed central mystery seems little more than an afterthought. Apparently the rich are not like me and thee - they’re infinitely more quirky. Scarcely a single character can be described as “normal.”

Nora herself has an abundance of eccentricities - her late husband was killed by his drug supplier, she dresses in her grandmother’s glamorous vintage haute couture clothing, she exercises at a class taught by a former Israeli army commando in an Episcopal church, she faints over nearly everything, she lives in a rural area and doesn’t know how to drive and either bicycles or is chauffeured everywhere, living on the brink of abject poverty she approaches her job as hardly more than an amusing hobby to while away her empty hours. As I said, not like me and thee.

The character who comes the closest to being a regular guy is Michael Abruzzo, whose family has ties to organized crime, has one brother who’s in prison and another who’s presumed dead. Michael has his own idiosyncrasy, however, because he’s strongly attracted to Nora and he’s slowly wearing down her resistance.

How to Murder a Millionaire is an acceptable story, but it’s on the light, insubstantial side. Now that the author has established the foundation of her series maybe future installments will focus more on the mystery and less on the lifestyles of the formerly rich and not quite famous.

--Lesley Dunlap