Murder on the Silk Road

Book excerpt: Hollywood legend Charlotte Graham visits China to sample Buddhist sculpture, ancient art, and a thoroughly intellectual murder in this contemporary cozy mystery After four decades as a Hollywood and Broadway icon, Charlotte Graham is itching for a new adventure. So when a fortune-telling friend predicts that Charlotte is about to go on an exotic voyage—one which will challenge her as no trip ever has—and Charlotte’s stepdaughter invites her on an expedition to a remote oasis in northwest China, the legendary leading lady leaps at the chance to explore the unknown. But on reaching Dunhuang, Charlotte will be confronted with something she knows far too well: cold-blooded murder. Forbidding and mysterious, Dunhuang is a hotbed of academic research, where archaeologists, paleontologists, and scholars of all stripes rub elbows and butt heads. When a scientist is found dead just after making a historic find, Charlotte doesn’t need the I Ching to know it’s up to her to find the killer. Fans of Jessica Fletcher and Murder She Wrote will recognize Charlotte Graham as one of that special breed of amateur sleuth: a woman who wouldn’t dream of retirement and will never let a killer go free. Glamorous, elegant, and always entertaining, the Charlotte Graham series is truly one of a kind. Murder on the Silk Road is the 4th book in the Charlotte Graham Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.