Ladybug, Ladybug: A Hometown Heroes Mystery

The latest case for the Hometown Heroes of Raven's Wing, Conn., lands the quartet of senior-citizen sleuths in a series of tragic, unpredictable murders. Dr. Trevor Bradford asks fellow Hero, Mildred Bennett, to visit a distraught patient whose oldest son, a seminarian, has just died, apparently of autoerotic asphyxiation. Louise Cannivan tells Mildred about a phone call she received suggesting that her son's death was murder and asks the Heroes to investigate. Reluctantly they agree and visit the seminary where the dead boy roomed with the Heroes' protege, Cameron Maine (seen in The Pumpkin-Shell Wife ) . Beginning with this slender thread, McShea weaves an intricate mystery involving a disillusioned priest, an angry father, a blind veteran firefighter and the Heroes in escalating homicide before the pattern is completed. Readers may quibble over the tenuous connection between the group and their latest ``client,'' but McShea's direct style and her engaging, never-cute and often sharply eccentric characters quickly prevail. (July)