A Portion for Foxes: A Chief Inspector Morissey Mystery

A serial killer is at work in this eerie mystery, disemboweling homeless men in the small Yorkshire college town of Malminster. Although Chief Inspector Morrissey, stressed both at home and on the job, is thinking of leaving the force, he musters his deductive skills to find the psychopath responsible. After the bodies of two young women, both associated with the college and both with tumultuous love lives, are found at the bottom of the lake, Morrisey wonders whether he should be looking for one killer or two. He deploys his entire staff, a well-defined crew of ambitious, politically astute policemen, and their progress is thoroughly engrossing. Meanwhile, Morrissey discovers that three of the murdered men were associated in some way with a psychiatric outpatient clinic that had ties to the college. The story suffers some from being chopped a bit too finely into short scenes from many different points of view (including one disquieting first-person voice that may belong to a killer); but Mitchell (Roots of Evil) keeps a secret well, and the answers unfold gradually and forcefully. (Nov.)