Divided Treasure

The circumstances of this small-scale British mystery are as current as tomorrow's Dow Jones averages. Mark Treasure, previously met in the series that includes Treasure in Roubles, is a figure to reckon with in the world of high finance, a merchant banker and CEO of the great house of Greenwood, Phipps. In addition, he is an amateur sleuth in the British gentlemanly tradition. The triggering event here is the sale of a candy manufacturing firm in North Wales, threatening the loss of hundreds of jobs. Peculiar quirks in the pension funds have surfaced; Treasure, a pension trustee, comes down from London to have a close look and, what with his keen eye, notices people behaving strangely. What's more, it begins to look as if the recent death of the firm's director may not have been an accident after all. Two attempted rapes (one thwarted by the victim's claiming to have AIDS) and two more killings (one luridly employing a huge vat full of boiling syrup) compound the mystery in this efficient, deft little thriller. The reader, however, may be overcome by details of the dizzying fiscal maneuvers surrounding a hostile takeover. (March)