McNally's Trial

Suggesting a morally bankrupt, sun-tanned Bertie Wooster, Archy McNally sleuths among Florida's well-heeled Palm Beach set in this lightweight crime series from the author of the Deadly Sins and Commandments thrillers. Archy, an occasional investigator for his stuffy lawyer father, here agrees to look into the sudden ``uptick'' in business that is worrying a pretty exec at the exclusive Whitcomb Funeral Homes. Too many people are dying, observes the woman, and being shipped up north in coffins. In between boozing, lying to his girlfriend and delivering sub-Wodehouse patter that lacks both wit and an anchoring value system, Archy and his gormless pal Binky Watrous investigate the likable old couple who own the funeral homes and their son and his wife, whose swinging lifestyle makes Archy's look tame. The trick of insinuating character eludes Sanders, who, if a woman dissembles or a doctor is stoned to the gills, hits us over the head with the facts. While an occasional few of Archy's quips are funny, Sanders's dialogue is mostly as stiff as the story's corpses. Literary Guild selection. (Mar.)