Injury Time

These 16 clever short puzzlers by the accomplished British author will serve as an excellent introduction to new readers and be a sure delight to fans. Most center around the investigations and acute observations of Berebury Detective Inspector Sloan. Like Agatha Christie, Aird (A Going Concern) specializes in classic puzzles with ingenious, yet logical, surprise endings. In ``Memory Corner,'' a professor says he killed a student who had developed a way to read another's memory, a discovery that would signal, he says, ""the end of all investigative and judicial processes.'' Skeptical, Sloan determines another reason for the young man's death. A few stories star Foreign Officer Henry Tyler, who solves cases for beleaguered friends and family members. Featuring neither Sloan nor Tyler is the satisfying ``Devilled Dip,"" about an unlucky thief's inadvertant good deed. (Aug.)