They Did It with Love

Agatha Christie meets ""Desperate Housewives"" in Morgenroths smashing, Stepfordesque mystery. At the heart of the novel is Manhattan bookshop clerk Sofie, whose fathers death has left her wealthy and in need of a change of pace. Her husband suggests moving to posh Greenwich, Conn., where she falls in with a group of bored, bitchy and smart housewives who gossip, drink too much and occasionally cat around with each others husbands. When young trophy wife Julia is found swinging from a tree in her front yard, the obvious conclusion is suicidebut both cops and neighbors suspect murder, and mystery addict Sofie sets out to do a little sleuthing. Morgenroth (""Saved"") places Sofie precisely in her contrasting urban and suburban settings with elegant prose, from a tangle of dark grey branches in Central Park to maple leaves that drifted downa bright autumn redleaving a carpet on the ground like a huge pool of blood. The character development and local color are so strong that this would be a hit even without the dazzling surprise ending. ""(Jan.)"" .