Relative Danger

At the start of Shaw's promising first mystery, Cealie Gunther, an independent woman of a certain age, finds her granddaughter, Kat, in tears on a surprise visit to her widowed son in a Chicago suburb. Kat, a high school senior with excellent grades, is so upset after the death of a school custodian (the police, who at first ruled the custodian's balcony fall an accident, now suspect Kat's Spanish teacher of murder) that she insists on staying home and missing final exams and graduation. When the interfering Cealie pushes her way into Kat's high school as a substitute teacher, further violence and mysterious accidents, not to mention rude students and eccentric staff members, can't deter her from finding answers. A former lover, restaurant owner Gil Thurman, lends romantic interest. While Cealie muses too much on matters irrelevant to the main plot, humorous dialogue, a suspenseful climax and good character development should please cozy fans. (Dec.)