Bagels for Tea

The Tudor charms of York, England, provide the unlikely setting for the overwrought return engagement of sprightly Californian Fanny Zindel, introduced in Red Sea, Dead Sea . A firebrand on the tennis court and a devoted grandmother, Fanny has gone to England for a B'nai Brith conference and to visit her beloved granddaughter Susan at her upper-crust boarding school in York. During Fanny's visit, however, Susan is expelled through the machinations of the headmistress's anti-Semitic pet pupil Mary Louise. Fanny's romantic interest, Nathan, a steely, semi-retired Mossad operative, noses out unsavory facts about Mary Louise (she is running a prostitution ring, for one thing) just before the girl is murdered in an act that implicates Susan and her boyfriend. Then it's up to Fanny, armed with the bagels and knitting needles she keeps in her ``everything bag'' to find the real murderers and clear the Zindel name. Even the most avid cozy reader is likely to find this fare terminally precious--Fanny whines and pronounces in a repetitive sentence structure that comes close to parody. Nor does the plot offer redemptive value, especially since it is wrapped up with a ridiculous and clumsy coincidence. (May)