Plot

Jessica helps a Russian police officer capture the elusive mastermind behind the theft of a Faberge egg.

A year ago a Fabergé egg-thief was shot instead of paid in St. Petersburg. In Miami, Charles Devon was telling Leo Stone he will close his book store, a first. They welcome Jessica to the world book fair, escorted by Marcie Stone Devon. Leo is told outside his attaché-case of money from St. Petersburg is counterfeit, and held liable to pay within two days. Sergei Nemiroff, unknown to Leo, stops him being beaten up, but demands the egg by evening. Jessica and Valerie 'Val' Harris hear her boyfriend Ben Peterson is grumpy still to be working as Hotel magnate and ex-diplomat Victor Roscoe's errand boy while waiting for the scholarship he was promised, her dad James Harris insists the boy is not good enough. Nemiroff fails to get in claiming to be a Russian publisher who forgot his badge, but quickly greets Jessica, who notices he picks up an invoice. She stops him outside, guesses from badge pin marks he's a Russian cop, he admits investigating Leo's black market dealings. Her threat to tell the U.S. authorities makes him tell the Fabergé egg and a tsarina's tiara, seen two weeks ago in Miami, were stolen when Leo was seen in St. Petersburg, and Sergei's innocent brother custodian Grigori is to be executed for the theft in 48 hours. Harris refuses the Devons, who hoped he would invest in their extension plans, any repayment delay, threatening to foreclose. They rush off hoping to refinance. Victor Roscoe refuses Leo any more money. Ben's med school scholarship is refused invoking a mere high school prank. Jessica suggest to Marcie that James may want to sink the Devon book company because she dumped him for Charles years ago. Jessica gets Nemiroff out by pretending he was looking for her reading glasses while snooping in James' office, but pulls them while interrogating why he, as university alumnus, abused his donor's clout to get Ben's application rejected. Soon after, Valerie Harris finds her dad's body in his decorative pool, drowned unconscious, next to an empty stand Jessica expects to be the egg's in his secret art gallery. Jessica finds a medallion with the initial BP in the pool, Lt. Perez arrest Ben Petersen. Jessica suddenly sees clear and sets a trap for the real killer.—KGF Vissers

Attending an international book fair in Miami, Jessica Fletcher finds herself working with a Russian police Sergeant, Sergei Nemiroff, who is trying to track down a stolen Fabergé egg. His brother is in jail for a murder that took place in relation to the robbery and he has only a few days left to solve the case. The egg is in the private collection of James Harris, a nasty man who seems to have gone out of his way to make any number of people angry enough to want him dead. He's about to put prospective business partners out of business and even blackballed his daughter's boyfriend's application for medical school because he thinks he's an unsuitable match. When he is found dead it's left to Jessica to sort through the web of clues.—garykmcd