Treasure by Post

Investment banker and amateur sleuth Mark Treasure makes his 14th appearance in this uncharacteristically tedious tale. Asked to serve as a trustee for a convent in England's West Country, Treasure soon learns that all but one of the shareholders on the board support dissolution of the 11 million assets of the convent, where only three nuns reside. The demanding historical and legal intricacies of the trust overshadow a mugging that fells the convent's elderly organist, which is followed by a suspicious fire that destroys the convent. When one of nuns, who has been printing copies of rare colonial British stamps, dies, Treasure must discover who was supplying her with ink and motivation. The trust remains a red herring, the scent of which grows stronger when the one hold-out shareholder is murdered. Unfortunately none of the players warrants great suspicion, so the resolution unfolds with little power. Williams's earlier exploration of troubled churches, Holy Treasure! , was more successful. (Feb.)