Little Green Man in Ireland

In this lightweight confection, actress-turned-decorator Sydney Reardon shows her visiting niece, Kim Brennan, around London and Dublin. Sydney's friend Ian Hardwicke, an art exporter, hopes to trick Kim into carrying a suspicious package back to the States. Pub crawling, shopping and tourism so absorb Sydney and Kim that they don't connect Ian to the murder of a man who had bothered him on the street. When Kim boards her New York-bound plane, a gangster friend of Sydney's switches packages while the easily duped decorator goes home to face a murder attempt. With its wide-eyed heroines and suave villains explaining the plot twists (such as they are) to each other, this innocuous caper speeds along with so little friction that reading it feels like fast-forwarding through a video. (May)