Law and Ardor: An Andrew Broom Mystery

McInerny's fifth Andrew Broom title (after Mom and Dead) tees off on the seventh fairway of a country-club course, where wealthy investor Edgar Bissonet, apparently the victim of a heart attack, is found dead. But lawyer Broom suspects the man died elsewhere and was moved. Was he murdered? Wyler, Ind., is a cozy town where such a question can cause a stir. After the police gather enough circumstantial evidence to arrest Edgar's son for murder, Broom, unconvinced of his guilt, agrees to defend him. Broom also sends his nephew Gerald to gather information about the beautiful young woman to whom the elder Bissonet seems to have written love poems. The fact that the poems, which were stored in the man's computer, have now vanished-as has a copy of the autobiography Bissonet pere was writing-strikes Broom as suspicious. More accusations and even a false confession add a few gentle curves to a solid outing marked by McInerny's sharp ear for gossip and his keen, affectionate eye for small-town social stratification. (Aug.)