Hickory Dickory Stalk

In her second mystery featuring romance writer E.J. Pugh (after One, Two, What Did Daddy Do?), the suspense begins slowly when prank 911 calls are traced to E.J's home. But it doesn't stop there, and eventually her five-year-old daughter eats a piece of candy spiked with glass. Suspicions focus on a teenage Peeping Tom, until he turns up dead in the back seat of E.J.'s station wagon. Strange neighbors and her husband's overly amorous colleague are among the suspects as threats mount against E.J. and her children. The heroine's sardonic wit and guts will endear her to readers and the tension is kept up throughout. Her Texas setting is freshly rendered, but E.J.'s identity as a romance novelist isn't as convincing--she lacks insight into the genre and repeats derogatory stereotypes that real romance writers studiously avoid. (Oct.)