Clubbed to Death

This low-key whodunit set in a London club shows members dropping out of the old-boy network in decidedly unusual ways. Ruled by the memory of lascivious poet, bon vivant and womanizer John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, whose verse appears throughout the narrative, the ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced ``Fanshaw'') club is appalled when its secretary, Trueman, falls from an upper story to his death in the saloon. The police deem the death a suicide at first, but keep the case open and install Robert Amiss, friend of CID Sgt. Pooley (both last seen in The School of English Murder ) as a waiter and spy. Robert finds almost everything amiss at the social sanctuary--from resident members' dining sumptuously at little expense to the suspected selling off of rare wine. The chairman of the club vows to bring about radical change, only to be dynamited at his first committee meeting. Edwards's accurate portraits of the people and mores in English men's clubs, coupled with her deliciously dry sense of humor, make for a procedural that is short on suspense but long on entertainment. (Sept.)