Fatality at Bath & Wells

The encore to Livingston's corker debut in The Trouble at Aquitaine finds her modest hero, retired tax inspector Mr. Pringle, dealing with a criminal in England's famous resort. When the lights go out at a new TV station, Bath & Wells, someone on the staff fatally stabs Christopher Gordon, who has several enemies. The police concentrate on proving Jack Kemp guilty, as he had lost out when Gordon had been promoted to program director by his uncle, the studio boss. But Kemp's friends beieve he is innocent and hire Mr. Pringle to track down the real killer. He does, of course, as the reader discovers in a neatly constructed story that is invigorated by the author's scalpel-sharp wit, aimed at prideful British TV, which can be as lunatic as the American tube, it seems. (January 12)