The Unexpected Corpse

Oliphant's ( Dead in the Scrub ) engaging amateur sleuth Shirley McClintock returns for a sprightly adventure concerning family matters and murder. Beth Coverly is expecting the ashes of her father, January Storey, and his wife, Billy-B, who died in an accident, to be brought to her Colorado ranch for burial. But when Claris Bryan, Billy-B's daughter, arrives for the internment, it's with not two, but three boxes: she didn't know what else to do with Cousin Willard, who died several weeks earlier. The day after the burial, a hysterical Beth calls her cousin Shirley: someone has dug up Jan and Billy-B, scattering the ashes. Shirley decides to visit Claris and ask ``a few discreet questions,'' only to find her dead of a gunshot wound and, near her body, yet another box of ashes--labeled ``Willard Bryan.'' But if that's Willard, what--or who--was buried? A check of Willard's belongings adds to the puzzle; squirreled away in his mobile home is a small collection of extremely valuable 18th-century silver. Unflappable, commonsensical Shirley perseveres, finally sorting out her relatives' problems and, en route, an unsolved crime dating back to the 1940s. (Dec.)