The society pages announce it before she even arrives: Griselda Satterlee, daughter of the princess of Rome, has left her career as an actress behind and is traveling to Manhattan to reinvent herself as a fashion designer. They also announce the return of the dashing Montefierrow twins to New York after a twelve-year sojourn in Europe. But there is more to this story than what<U+2019>s reported, which becomes clear when the three meet one evening during a walk, and their polite conversation quickly takes a menacing turn. The twins are seeking a rare and powerful gem and they believe it<U+2019>s stashed in the unused apartment where Griselda is staying. Baffled by the request, she pushes them away, but they won<U+2019>t take no for an answer. When they return, accompanied by Griselda<U+2019>s long-estranged younger sister, the murders begin... Drenched in the glamour and luxury of the New York elite, The So Blue Marble is a perfectly Art Deco suspense novel in which nothing is quite as it seems. While different in style from her later books, Dorothy B. Hughes<U+2019>s debut highlights her greatest strengths as an author, rendered with both the poetic language and the psychology of fear for which she is known today.