An Easy Day for a Lady

It's 1910, and nosy, energetic Nell Bray, British suffragette and sometime sleuth seen last in Stage Fright, is vacationing at the resort town of Chamonix in the French Alps. Nell is climbing a mountain slope when the body of Arthur Mordiford is freed from the ice nearby--30 years after he and his guide were lost to an avalanche. Arriving to claim the body are the victim's wealthy brother Gregory (a member of the original climbing party), who has brought his son, daughter and a nephew, who hires Nell as interpreter to help with the red tape. They are staying with the guide's widow, Marie, and her daughter Sylvie. A diary found on Arthur's body raises questions about Sylvie's parentage and tensions abound, reaching a climax after Gregory, leading a family pilgrimage to the site of the body's discovery, is poisoned and Marie is arrested for his murder. Nell joins forces with Arthur's onetime fiancee, for many years a contented recluse in the area, to find the truth about the brothers' deaths, past and present. Plotting goes from over-elaborate to numbing in this tale best recommended for its well-crafted evocation of time and place. (Feb.)