Foxglove

When Claire Breslinsky, the star of Kelly's first mystery, Park Lane South, Queens , moves back to her old neighborhood of Richmond Hill in Queens, N.Y., she is delighted to discover that a childhood friend, Theresa, lives across the street. But her joy is short-lived: the next day ``Tree'' is found dead, apparently of a stroke. Claire, however, suspects Tree's philandering husband, Andrew Dover, of murder, but she must fit in her sleuthing between a multitude of chores and family gatherings. Meanwhile, Swamiji, Claire's ashram teacher years ealier in India, drops in for a few weeks, while one of Claire's sisters, talkative, insecure Carmela, who is married to a slightly sinister Polish diplomat, writes and produces a musical about Snow White whose cast includes most of the many members of the Breslinsky family. And former photographer Claire debates returning to the fashion world. By the time Claire sorts out the tangle of circumstances related to Tree's murder, the reader is awash in relentless and grating domesticity. (Concerning a vacuum cleaner that has no other significance in the story, Kelly writes, ``Every time Claire used it she couldn't help marveling what an utterly magnificent machine it was, whooshing up all and anything in its way.'') Erma Bombeck meets The Thin Man here, and neither is done justice. (Dec.)