Threnody for Two

Easygoing Detective Sergeant Carl Pedersen ( Some Die Young ) and brief appearances by his quirky wife, Freda, save this small-town Southern California whodunit from an overcontrolled plot and an excess of stuffy characters. Two elderly women are murdered with identical steak knives, plunged into their hearts with surgical precision. One is a well-liked bag lady who often sneaked into the local hospital to sleep; the other is a socialite devoted to good causes. Pedersen is sure that the two murders are connected despite the lack of evidence and the lack of support from his fellow detectives and from the second victim's four pretentious siblings. When Hart frees the detective to follow his hunches, the plot leads to a satisfying resolution. (Mar.)