The Spoils of Time

British author Thomson's mysteries featuring kindly Inspector Rudd are distinguished by plot ingenuity and titillating characters, assets that compensate for her stilted prose. Here the detective meets endearing Kitty Laud, years after her retirement from a career in the music halls. Kitty asks Rudd to trace her brother Hal, missing from his digs in London. The inspector has to put the case aside when he is assigned to investigate events at a stately home in the country. Gathered at the once handsome but now deteriorating Aston property, the kin of aged Edgar Aston stand by his deathbed. Also present is Roland Saxby, long estranged from his friend Edgar, and eager to end their quarrel before it's too late. But it's Roland's sudden, suspicious death that brings Rudd to ask questions and ultimately find the astounding reason for Hal's disappearance. (Dec.)