Quaker Indictment

A villainous government agency crosses swords with Elizabeth Elliot, Clerk of the Cambridge, Mass., Friends Meeting, in the fourth of Irene Allen's Quaker series (Quaker Testimony, 1996). Now in her 60s, Elizabeth is visiting her old college friend Rebecca Nichols in Seattle. Rebecca is determined to prove the existence of radioactive compounds in the soil and water around the Hanford, Wash., plutonium plant, believing the contaminants responsible for the cancers that killed her mother, her father and her sister. On an expedition to collect soil samples, Rebecca is arrested by security men; later that day, she is found dead of a gunshot wound near her home. Elizabeth teams up with Dr. Meghan Zillann, a decidedly un-Quaker friend of Rebecca's, to pin the murder on the Hanford security force. Starting slowly and pausing frequently to preach against the evils of a government that would contaminate the land while manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, the story eventually reaches an exciting conclusion and a surprising murderer. As in all of Allen's books, the story focuses on a moral dilemma and Elizabeth's deep religious convictions dictate how she reacts. Unworldly as she might be and nearly crippled with arthritis, she reads the clues smartly and even takes physical action when she must. Readers may, however, find that the polemics, especially in the opening sections of the book, overwhelm the narrative. (Feb.)