cover image Death of a Partner

Death of a Partner

Janet Neel. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (252pp) ISBN 978-0-312-05411-3

The upper echelons of Britain's power structure are crisply explored in this stylish mystery by the author of Death on Site. When Giles Hawick, minister of the Crown, reports that his lawyer fiancee, Angela Morgan, is missing, chief inspector John McLeish of London's New Scotland Yard is assigned to the case. Initially, the inspector believes Ms. Morgan has run away with another man--perhaps her married boss and lover. However, the boss is still very much in evidence and so is his wife, who, McLeish learns, knew about her husband's infidelity. After Angela's battered body is found, McLeish includes the couple on his list of suspects. Heading this list is Hawick, a man McLeish considers capable of murdering a two-timing lover, and Angela's sister, who is in love with Hawick. The dead woman was sleeping her way to the top, McLeish discovers, and casually destroying other people's lives in the process. The inspector relies on sound police tactics to force the murderer into the open, and finds that the victim fell prey to the world's oldest passion--greed. Neel adds keen observation of human nature to a suspenseful plot. (Feb.)