The Redbird Affair — Lucile Vernon Stevens

Acting as her family's representative to Uncle Chester Wilson's funeral at Redbird gave Madlyn Hayes, on vacation for her studies toward a Ph.D., the opportunity for a first-hand look at the estate where her mother had grown up. And there was another novelty to observe, for the funeral was almost a state occasion. Incomprehensible though it seemed to Madlyn, mousy Uncle Chester had been a formidable power in the behind-the-scenes manipulations of international politics.

Madlyn also only half believed Aunt Lou Ray Wilson's story of the Redbird papers, but her fondness for Chester's flighty, sweet-tempered widow prompted her to agree to search for them. Hidden by Chester somewhere in the elegant ante-bellum plantation house, the explosive documents had already caused one man to lose his life.

So said Aunt Lou Raye, who commissioned blond lawyer Jerry Foster to assist with the search. She admonished both Jerry and Madlyn to destroy the papers the instant they found them--and to breathe not a word about them to the other house guests, any one of whom could be seeking the sinister documents as well.

One of the guests was dark, slim Graham Vandiman, Uncle Chester's nephew and once the hero of Madlyn's adolescent daydreams. Still a compellingly attractive bachelor, he was destined to play a leading role in the chilling real-life drama staged against the backdrop of Redbird's balmy rose-scented acres.