Shadows at the Spring Show

June 13, 2005
With complex crimes and even more complex personal decisions for Maggie Summer, antique-print dealer and history professor, the fourth installment of Wait's cozy series (after 2004's Shadows on the Ivy
) doesn't disappoint. Since Maggie is thinking about adopting a child, she volunteers to organize an antique fair, the proceeds of which will go to support a local New Jersey adoption agency. Everything is running smoothly until the adoption agency begins receiving threatening letters—cancel the antique fair or else. Meanwhile, Holly Sloane, a saintly woman who's adopted 11 children, is shot, and one of her adoptive sons goes missing. Are the threatening letters and the shooting connected? Maggie must also ask herself some hard questions about her future. Her beau, Will Brewer, is a dreamboat, but he doesn't want to be a dad. Maggie knows that if she adopts, their romance will stagnate or end. Kudos to Wait for tackling a pressing social issue like adoption: she's never heavy-handed, and she just might inspire some readers to think about opening their homes to children in need. Agent, Richard Henshaw.