A Safe Place to Die

The specters of death and infidelity haunt the lush gardens and well-protected homes of exclusive Branch Hill, Conn., in the seventh case (after Time Lapse ) for New York City security expert Anna Peters. Accompanying her artist husband Harry to the opening of his show in a Branch Hill gallery, Anna finds herself trailing a killer after a teenaged girl is bludgeoned to death. Where the rich reside, troubled teenagers often abound and Peters is soon awash in adolescent angst: minor drug dalliances, nasty temper tantrums and plain janes languishing in the shadow of more precocious beauties. The local grownups seem a more stable lot, yet appearances can be deceptive; most manage an occasional flight from the marital yoke, and the community Madrigal Society, led by an overly artistic director, is beset by missing funds and the feud between a young singer and a senior diva-in-residence. A palpable sense of rural claustrophobia informs this mystery as escape from Branch Hill takes many diverse forms. A sharp-eyed, pleasant guide along these dark peculiar paths, Anna exhibits precious few eccentricities of her own. (May)