Fieldwork: A Mystery

Dr. Al Frampton, a wealthy Vancouver, B.C., surgeon, is murdered in the basement of his office building, and a slew of people are suspected. The doctor's wife, Diana, feared her husband soon would cut her out of his will; his lesbian receptionist was afraid of being dismissed; Frampton's unstable, illegitimate 30-year-old daughter recently had discovered his identity, and he rudely rebutted her efforts to get to know him; a former patient who was a high-priced modeluntil the doctor's botched surgery disfigured herstill hated him; and a group of militant feminists disapproved of the way the doctor treated his female patients. Marsha Miller, an urban anthropology graduate student, observes the two police detectives assigned to the case, and together the three slowly narrow down the leads. This is a pleasant mystery that relies more on a kind of laid-back feminist atmosphere than on plot or suspense. (June)