Brewing Up a Storm: A John Thatcher Mystery

Deliberate, unfailingly polite Wall Street banker John Putnam Thatcher (Right on the Money, 1993, etc.) is built more for endurance than speed, and his 24th appearance is another thoroughly absorbing business-based puzzler. Wealthy divorcee Madeleine Underwood is a latter-day Carrie Nation, except that her cause is watered down. She's going after a nonalcoholic brew called Quax, which she and other members of her grassroots organization, NOBBY (No Beer Buying Youngsters), are convinced will nudge America's youth down the slippery slope toward alcoholism. With characteristic lack of judgment, Underwood commits NOBBY to an ill-advised lawsuit filed by the family of a dead teen. She makes unsubstantiated claims before a congressional committee and leads the charge against Rugby's, a popular family restaurant that has decided to carry Quax. Since Rugby's owner is a client of his bank, Thatcher is more than mildly interested when he stumbles upon Underwood inciting NOBBY members to violence in front of one of the chain's new restaurants. Several days later, Underwood is found murdered beneath a table at the congressional hearings. Suspects, of course, are rampant, and it takes Thatcher's calm ponderings to find the killer. The team that writes as Lathen does a superior job of portraying business in a savvy way--cynical in all the right places and raising interesting issues about organizations that seek to limit adult freedoms under the guise of protecting children. (Dec.)