Heavy with allusions to Thomas Wolfe, Lewis Carroll, Nietzsche, Kafka and other literary giants, British author Poulson's absorbing second Cambridge mystery (after 2004's Murder Is Academic
) concerns Professor Cassandra James's efforts to cope with single motherhood while making a trouble-ridden dramatic debut at the Everyman Theatre. She has rewritten Mrs. Henry Wood's 1860s novel East Lynne
as a play, and during rehearsals must deal with a ghostly apparition in the gallery, followed by the abrupt disappearance of her close friend and leading lady, Melissa Meadow. Cass comments that "life does seem to be mirroring art in a rather disturbing way" when an anonymous letter quoting a Byron love poem offers the only clue to Melissa's whereabouts. Much of the story concerns such maternal challenges as breast-feeding, squalling babies in "nappies" and postpartum depression, yet somehow Cass finds time to break into her missing friend's empty house and eventually track down both her own and Melissa's abusive ex-spouses and other lovers. Skillful blendings of reality with Tarot card prophesies and dream visions lead to a stunning resolution. Agent, Robert Hale (U.K.). (May 16)
