REWIND

In this engrossing but ultimately disappointing mystery from British veteran Armstrong, pool boy Simon Harris discovers his onetime lover, property agent Adele Morrison, floating naked and "belly-up like a dead fish" in an indoor swimming pool at the Crown House, a seedy hotel on the East Anglian coast. A call to 999 rouses gruff Det. Insp. Ian Preston, who seems to be the central character until the plot drifts off into a myriad of subplots and romantic entanglements involving Adele's estranged husband, her current and former lovers, plus her half-sister, Sylvie, an aspiring actress who flies in from Canada to declare the death a suicide. Somewhat inexplicably, Sylvie becomes intimately involved with Preston after their first encounter. The author introduces a host of characters living in London's seamier neighborhoods who have little to do with Preston's investigation; then the drowning in the Thames of one of Adele's ex-lovers brings the focus back to the original murder. Armstrong nicely conveys the ambience of the dilapidated seaside community, and the colloquialisms she uses ring true even if many will be obscure to American readers. While Preston's sleuthing may well be effective, we rarely see him amid the many scene shifts. References to Sherlock Holmes abound, but even the Great Detective would have trouble solving this confusing puzzler. (July)