A wilting summer heat wave -- as well as faculty air-conditioning -- is bringing out the worst in the tenants of Martha Patterson's Greenwich Village apartment building. Martha, a retired attorney blessed with common sense and a septuagenarian's practicality, agrees to join the co-op board to help facilitate some badly needed change. It's a thankless and difficult job -- and a deadly one when the president of the board, Arnold Stern, is murdered.
Martha soon discovers Stern was decidedly unpopular for many interesting reasons. A trail of suspicion leads to several of the tenants, including her neighbor and good friend, an ailing archaeologist whose priceless Greek antiquity becomes a subtle but crucial clue. Ironically, it's the innocent secret of a little girl that exposes the killer -- and unravels a murder prompted by greed, jealousy . . .and undoubtedly, the heat.
