Design for Dying

When Christine Marsh, who's been in Africa for 20 years, writes that she's returning to live in the Sussex town where she grew up, the only person to greet the news with enthusiasm is her nearly senile mother Dolly. Christine's put-upon cousin Martha Kershaw knows how selfish Christine is: Martha takes care of Dolly with little recompense and has been asked to find a large, elegant house at an impossibly low price for the Marshes. When Christine arrives, attended by both her current and her former husbands, consternation increases. Billy Jones, the architect supervising the conversion of her house, is a former flame she callously discarded. She further exacerbates the simmering criticism by accusing the workmen of stealing and crushes the hopeful Dolly, ignored for 17 years, by telling her there is no way she'll share in the grand new house. Then Christine's husband, wealthy Derek Marsh, is found murdered. Detective Chief Superintendent Wiseman""Old Tubby''suspects both Christine and her first husband, but they and the other suspects all have good alibis. Some readers may miss Morice's usual sleuth Tessa Crichton, last seen in Publish and Be Killed. But Morice is her usual savagely witty self, and this solid mystery is social comedy as well. (May)