A Cast of Killers

In their second case (following the one recounted in Hubbert & Lil: Partners in Crime ), fussy New York bachelor T. S. Hubbert and his octogenarian Auntie Lil battle the indifference of most New Yorkers, including some cops, toward the plight of the poor and lonely. While serving lunch for the homeless in a church near the theater district, Lil and Hubbert watch helplessly as an elderly actress dies, apparently of a heart attack. Despite being warned off the case by testy, publicity-seeking NYPD Lt. Manny Abromowitz, Lil dragoons T.S. into investigating. With old friends, including well-connected widow Lilah Cheswick, T.S.'s secret love, they trace the last days of the dead woman--known only by her stage name, Emily Toujours. A sinister theater impresario, a cynical but good-hearted cop, male prostitutes and another murder make for a soup kitchen recipe more lethal than most. With a fond eye for the eccentric, the pseudonymous Gray gives the streets of Hell's Kitchen--depicted as a neighborhood of tightly knit denizens, law-abiding and not--the air of a gritty English village. (Dec.)