Dead Set: A Charmian Daniels Mystery

Rife with enticing clues and evasive suspects, Melville's 18th mystery, following Witching Murder , is hard to put down. In the English town of Windsor, in the shadow of the castle, widowed policewoman Charmian Daniels documents the strangling death of a teenage girl . A married man, whose address the victim inexplicably listed in her diary, and who, according to his drab wife, hasn't been home in days, is the primary suspect. But Charmian also garners news of the victim's wrong-side-of-the-tracks boyfriend, killed by a hit-and-run driver; of an eight-year-old boy at a nearby school who speaks eerily of doppelgangers; and of the school's headmaster, single since his wife's demise in another hit-and-run accident. As Melville moves her characters through the artful, complex plot, the self-sufficient Charmian keeps a polite distance from most townsfolk, although romance simmers shyly between her and a colleague. Cozy rather than flashy, this lively tale of multiple murders offers a bounty of riddles to engage the reader. (Jan.)