Murder at Vassar

Critics praised Taylor's debut, wherein the admirable private detective, San Francisco's Maggie Elliott, solved The Cable Car Murders. Now she's at her alma mater for a class reunion, interrupted by a challenging assignment. Two women have been killed: wealthy, elderly Vassar alumna Chloe Warren and scholarship student Deborah Marten. Elliott believes the crimes are connected and agrees to investigate on behalf of Pudgie Brown, Chloe's principal heir, whom the police have arrested. There are many relatives, the sleuth learns, who would benefit from the old woman's death. One is magnetic Peter Warren; although he is a suspectand worse, in her liberal view, a RepublicanElliott becomes his lover. There is terrific excitement in the tense tale that ends with a double disclosure in incidents that seem to spell the detective's doom. Lines from an earlier Vassar graduate, Edna St. Vincent Millay, add luster here. These contrast noticeably with various grammatical errors by the narrator (and her creator). (February 17)