A ninetieth-birthday celebration may be ruined by a nefarious killer, in a mystery filled with “believable and lovable characters” (Publishers Weekly).

 The town of Tinker’s Cove is looking forward to the celebration marking former librarian Julia Ward Howe Tilley’s ninetieth birthday. Lucy Stone, Miss Tilley's closest friend, dreamed up the party idea—around the same time she decided she’s not getting old without a fight. Noticing crow's feet and a potential jelly belly, she’s resolved to exercise more and purchase some heavy-duty wrinkle cream, asap!

 That sounds like a plan—until Lucy realizes her daughter's fourteenth birthday bash, a coed sleepover, may turn her hair white overnight. What was she thinking? Likely she was distracted by the shocking death of Sherman Cobb, the town’s oldest attorney, an apparent suicide. His law partner, however, thinks Sherman was murdered.

 Poking about in Sherman's papers, Lucy turns up an intriguing tie between the dead man and Miss Tilley—but soon, no one can get to see the librarian as her bossy niece and biker great-nephew insist that she’s “failing.” Now, as a killer's ruthless plan rushes toward a conclusion, Lucy needs answers, or she and Miss Tilley won’t live long enough to make a wish and blow out the candles—in a suspenseful puzzler from the New York Times-bestselling author.

 “Reading a new Leslie Meier mystery is like catching up with a dear old friend.”—Kate Carlisle,New York Times-bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mysteries

 “Mothers everywhere will identify with Lucy and the domestic problems she encounters.”—Publishers Weekly