Once and Always Murder

Patience McKenna, romance writer, detective and heroine of several Papazoglou titles ( Sweet, Savage Death ) returns to her Connecticut hometown to be wed, but first she must solve the murders of a few privileged relatives and friends. A quarrel over a piece of land whose ownership is disputed among the local gentry leads to the deaths of an uncle, a loathed elderly aunt and the young wife of a popular trance channeler before Pay, delving into local pre-Revolutionary archives, can ferret out a motive. Papazoglou's buoyant heroine chatters her way though this mildly diverting, unconvincing succession of set pieces, dismayed by her family's assured old-money ways but ultimately undaunted. The thin, hard-to-credit plot and jarring notes (such as her friend Phoebe's imminent delivery of a baby diagnosed in utero with spina bifida) spoil the lighthearted rhythm. The distracted McKenna, however, remains a likable character. (Feb.)