Murder in the Cotswolds

Sheriff Chick Charleston ( Playing Catch-Up ; No Second Wind ) moves his sleuthing talents from a small town in Montana to a village in the Cotswolds. Traveling though Britain with his wife, Geeta, he arrives in Upper Beechwood, where she hopes to trace some of her ancestors. When one of their fellow guests at the inn, Oliver Smith, is found stabbed to death, Charleston agrees to help Chief Inspector Fred Perkins in his investigations. (Perkins, meanwhile, is locked in a power struggle with his superior, Superintendent Hawley.) Suspects are few to start with; but soon there are rumors of some shady business ventures, and facts emerge about Smith's involvement in a disputed inheritance. While Geeta becomes acquainted with the local inhabitants, Charleston and Perkins laboriously sift clues. Though competently written, this is a spiritless ver sion of an English procedural. ( May )