cover image A Cry in the City

A Cry in the City

Pauline Glen Winslow. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-312-04289-9

This tightly knit mystery thriller weaves purposefully between Greenwich Village and the small New York town of Burgoyne. When Mary Christopher, a strikingly attractive 36-year-old widow, leaves her husband's family home upstate for her city apartment, she believes her children are in the capable care of her mother-in-law, Alice. The latter, not finding the children at home, believes they are with Mary. When the bodies of the youngsters are discovered a few weeks later, suspicion falls on their distraught and inconsolable mother. The inbred community of Burgoyne, headed by social leader Boy Burgoyne, closes ranks against Mary, whom they regard as an interloper. Worse, Alice has suffered a stroke and is in the care of Boy and his sinister sister. Shrewd, persistent detective Danny Valenti is determined to prove Mary's innocence and receives aid from an astonishing source. Winslow's ( Judgement Day ) suspenseful story is animated by a cast of vivid characters. (July)