DEATH BY INFERIOR DESIGN: A Domestic Bliss Mystery

First-time author Caine's decorating-theme contemporary cozy blends mystery fiction with design information to decidedly mixed results. Designer Erin Gilbert arrives at a bedroom redecoration job to find a bizarre decorating competition underway, a handsome rival (amusingly named Sullivan) pitted against her and a baby picture of herself hidden in the paneling she's slated to replace. Adopted by a mother who forbade her to search for her origins, Erin decides the photo is proof that one of the three unappealing couples sponsoring the competition must be her birth parents. Her search to determine which couple turns sinister, however, when two parental possibilities are poisoned and she herself barely escapes attack. The plotting of both the parentage and murder mysteries is patently absurd; Erin just happens to carry around cyanide given to her as a gift by her ex-boyfriend, for example. In addition, the story's momentum is frequently interrupted by strained decorating analogies ("my birth parents had shuffled me around like an odd-looking table lamp that didn't quite blend with their home decor") and lengthy design disquisitions on everything from curtain rods to kitchen islands. Sadly, this unnecessary thematic clutter overwhelms Caine's appealing heroine and warm, genuinely winning voice. Agent, Nancy Yost. (Oct. 26)