Loyal Disloyalty

Richard Adeane, a struggling public relations officer in the small English city of Amersford, has become estranged from his loyal wife, Diana, and has taken up with a sexy but vacuous younger woman. Meanwhile, Diana's younger sister, the beautiful and catty Serena, remains married to the much older but extremely wealthy Walker-Jones, a sadistic lout. Serena willingly puts up with her husband's sexual excesses in order to keep her baubles and servants. When a series of women are brutally raped and murdered in the nearby countryside, Richard begins to suspect his brother-in-law. Should he help the police in their inquiries, or keep quiet in the interest of family loyalty? Ashford's characters are vivid, if somewhat stereotypical, in this quietly brooding, classic British mystery. His settings are effectively atmospheric, but his pacing falls flat. He builds little suspense, and what tension he generates is undercut by the rapist's absurd modus operandi of stealing small, cute dogs that he deploys to lure his victims into his car. (Jan.)