Every Breath You Take: Introducing Laura Principal

In her first mystery, Spring, a sociology professor, introduces Laura Principal, who has abandoned her own academic career to work as a London PI with Sonny Mendlowitz, her professional and personal partner. Laura and her friend Helen, who jointly own a cottage in Norfolk, decide to take in a third partner to share expenses; they settle on Monica Harcourt, a painter and academic--despite Laura's sense that there is ``something not quite right'' about her. When Laura stops by Monica's Cambridge flat and finds the body of her new housemate tied to a chair, fatally stabbed and beaten, she becomes obsessed with this woman she previously didn't even like very much and is determined to sort out the murder. Laura's in luck: a policewoman assigned to the case is a former student and includes Laura on the periphery; the staff at the university where Monica worked are as willing to share information and the late woman's effects with Laura as with the police. Such contrivances and a few plot holes limit this debut's success, but a smart pace and the suggestion that the promising Sonny might have a larger role in the future warrant a look at a sequel. (Apr.)