At the start of Cannell's meandering 13th Ellie Haskell mystery (after 2007's Withering Heights
), Ellie's dear friend Dorcas Critchley, the games mistress at St. Roberta's boarding school, asks the amateur sleuth to investigate the theft of the Loverly Cup, a trophy awarded annually by “Lady Loverly of the Hall at Upper Swan-Upping to the winner of the area schools' lacrosse championship match.” A former “inmate” of St. Roberta's, Ellie returns to campus, where she's forced to rub shoulders with old classmates she would rather avoid. The suspicious death of Marilyn Chips, a retired coach whose skills enabled the school to retain the trophy for many years, makes the loss of the Loverly Cup, if not irrelevant, certainly less important. Ellie and her housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy, enchant as always, though the student characters, in particular Ellie's precocious detecting pal, 14-year-old Ariel Hopkins, may strike some readers as too adult. Witty dialogue helps offset the slow pacing of this alternately funny and stodgy cozy. (Apr.)
