Emma Lathen — Pick Up Sticks

Pocket Books New York 1972 Paperback, 239pp. When Wall Street's John Putnam Thatcher and his Down East crony, Henry Morland, started hiking the Appalachian Trail, they hardly expected to stumble over a dead body. Nor did real-estate promoters Eddie Quinlan and Ralph Valenti plan to play hosts to a murderer at their luxurious, new vacation development. Now the Head of the Sloan Guaranty Trust Department must again combine his financial skills and unbounded curiosity to solve the murder of a man nobody seemd to dislike enough to kill. Minor tanning, spine creased. (ISBN: 9780671836740). Good.