cover image Scent of Death

Scent of Death

Emma Page. Doubleday Books, $12.95 (181pp) ISBN 978-0-385-23550-1

In this efficiently plotted novel, Detectives Lambert and Kelsey investigate the murders of Helen and Joanne Mowbray, sisters whose bodies are discovered near Cannonbridge, an English industrial town. They trace Helen's movements after her arrival in Cannonbridge some years earlier, and in doing so ruffle local feathers. Suspicion is cast on several county bigwigs, among them: J. Preston Fletcher, a businessman with national political aspirations, and David Hinckley, a designer who had an affair with Helen. Despite Page's generally quiet narrative style, the novel is darkly atmospheric and generates substantial tension. Her depiction of small-city English life is naturalistic, and its caustic quality provides a spice that compensates for what might otherwise be major deficiencies: a shortage of human warmth and humor. (November 11)