C.B.Greenfld: Lit Mad

Kallen tops her winning, fast-moving, stylish myteries with the fifth story about brainy, enigmatic C. B. Greenield, whose newspaper, the Sloan's Ford Reporter, keeps him and his right-hand woman, Maggie Rome, fully occupied except when they're sleuthing. Maggie leaves town in a huff when both C. B. and her husband are dazzled by a glamorous visitor from England. A putdown by the lovely Penelope Heath-Morecomb sends Maggie to join an encampment set up by a women's peace group near an Air Force base housing missiles. When hawkish Alice Dakin arives to support a counter-demonstration, she's warmly welcomed by the locals who earn their living at the base and who applaud her as the author of Why God Gave Us the Bomb. Dakin vanishes, and Maggie fears a violent confrontation, for she suspects members of the peace group have done away with her. She and C. B., newly arrived on the scene, gather evidence to support her conviction about Dakin's fate and the two triumph again over chicanery, ending the witty and exciting story with a jolting surprise. Mystery Guild selection. (March 28)