A lovely young couple had scheduled their wedding reception at the Pinnacle Hotel for the spring of 1959. I, as the hotel’s party planner extraordinaire (and Owner’s Daughter) got right to work making sure everything would be ready to the couple’s exact specifications. The wedding of the son of a senator and the daughter of a well-known industrialist was a prestigious event, where only the best people were invited – including all the best newspapers – and every single detail had to be perfect, down to even the color of individual flower petals.

Six months was a short time to get that all in order, but I was confident, with my skills, that I could pull it off without a hitch.

And then a hitch came. The senator’s wife contacted me discreetly because, as it turned out, a new bundle of joy would arrive too early for a spring wedding.

But this is the Pinnacle Hotel, darling! If a miracle is going to happen anywhere, it’s going to happen here. I assured the grandmother to be that all would be handled with care and the reception would be so positively lovely that no one would even question why the date had changed. They would be swept away in the romance of it all – the press included. I promised I could fulfill it, I even offered to pinkie swear!

But alas, not even a pinkie swear can stop mother nature. The torrential downpour that struck the wedding party between Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and the Pinnacle Hotel was something out of a horror novel. Even then, it probably wouldn’t have been so bad, if the groom hadn’t surprised the bride with a horse-drawn carriage ride from the church to the reception.

The guests began sprinkling up the hotel’s stairs, damp and dreary. I stood just inside our glass doors, next to my assistant and a doorman, and watched the drama unfold. “Oh, dear,” I whispered. Rolling back my shoulders, I turned to Poppy, my assistant. “Hot Toddies for all guests, immediately. Have housekeeping bring down as many towels as possible. Get candles lit and a fire burning in the Gold Room’s fireplace.”

“Sure thing, Ev. Anything else?”

The horse-drawn carriage pulled up close and let out a soggy groom and even soggier bride. The rain must have started when they were already halfway here. “I’ll intercept the bride and groom – see if there’s anything I can salvage in my suite. Send all of the girls from the salon up there too.”

“Fully equipped?”

“Please and thank you ever so!”

Up in my suite, the groom was easy enough to deal with. Our hotel’s manager was about his same size, and they swapped suits. The bride was trickier. Though she was all smiles, there were tears mixed with the rain on her cheeks. I shoved her hair in a bonnet dryer, gave her some of my shoes and gloves. I had no wedding gown, but fortunately, five of our hotel salon employees arrived fully equipped.

It took some finagling, but we had five, electric hand dryers going at once to save her dress. A cacophony of hot air working its way through handheld metal to dry the bride inside and out. I bobbed between them, fixing her makeup and, eventually, pinning up her hair.

The bride and groom arrived forty minutes late for their reception, and she no longer had a veil, but the guests were on to their third round of hot toddies and the press reporters had been generously compensated, and people were swept away in the romance of it all. Promise kept.

The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets: A Pinnacle Hotel Mystery, Book 3
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: March 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

Hotel heiress Evelyn Murphy is on the hunt for a cunning killer and a mysterious thief in the third Pinnacle Hotel mystery, perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ashley Weaver.

New York, 1958. When Evelyn’s mail is delivered during a luncheon in the Gold Room, she’s surprised to find she has received a diamond tiara, which catches the attention of a costume jewelry sales team lunching nearby. Their leader, Lois Mitchel, is especially interested, but by the end of the lunch, Lois has choked and fallen into Evelyn’s lap—and by the end of the day, she’s dead.

The papers report on the death the next day, while also spreading news of a Gentleman Thief who’s been leaving behind a red pocket square after robbing the city’s wealthiest. Determined to figure out what happened to Lois, Evelyn devotes herself to the investigation.

The truth is as rare as a diamond and just as hard to crack, and Evelyn swiftly discovers that this particular mystery is multifaceted, too. From costume jewelry hawkers to wannabe Robin Hoods and a detective in residence at the Pinnacle, nothing is simple. But neither is Evelyn—and this case is hers to solve.

About the author
S.K. Golden was born and raised in the Florida Keys where she married a commercial fisherman. The two of them still live on the islands with their five kids (one boy, four girls — including identical twins!), two cats, and a corgi named Goku. She graduated from Saint Leo University with a bachelor’s degree in Human Services and Administration and has put it to good use approximately zero times. She’s worked as a bank teller, a pharmacy technician, and an executive assistant at her father’s church. Sarah is delighted to be doing none of those things now.