cover image Now You See Her

Now You See Her

Eileen Dewhurst. Severn House Publishers, $20 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-7278-4733-1

Dewhurst's 16th novel, which follows Death Came Smiling and was published in Great Britain earlier this year, wobbles on an intriguing concept that never quite gels. Phyllida Moon, an accomplished 38-year-old actress, lands the role of a TV detective, and, with time to spare before shooting begins, applies for work at a Seaminster detective agency. Turned down initially, she is hired after she poses convincingly as a potential client. She's assigned to investigate a widower whom a neighboring woman suspects of molesting his teenage daughter. Disguising herself as a parent interested in the daughter's school, Phyllida is at the school when a male student is strangled. In another disguise, she is present at the school when one of the daughter's friends seemingly falls to her death from a high window. Dewhurst skillfully connects these events, but Phyllida's myriad and rapid name and character changes become hard to credit in the end. (Dec.)