Twenty-four year old socialite Lily Brewster and her brother Robert, two years older, are victims of the stock market crash of 1929. Their family money is gone, their father commits suicide. Forced into the practically non-existent job market with little skills and no experience, Lily finds a job in a bank sorting checks, a job she hates. Robert becomes a paid escort or, when the opportunity arises, the maitre d' in one of the posh restaurants such as Café Savarin, Fraunces Tavern, Luchow's, or Algonquin, that have survived the Depression. Rescue from their pitiful existence comes in the form of an entailed inheritance from their Great Uncle Horatio who deeds them his mansion, renamed Grace and Favor Cottage, and his millions if they make Voorburg-on-Hudson their home for ten years. Confirmed New Yorkers, they view this clause as nothing less than exile. However, circumstances being what they are, Lily and Robert take up residence and soon are investigating Uncle Horatio's death, one which looks more and more like murder each day. Anything Goes is a delightful first in a new series with a strong heroine and an endearing hero.
