Killed in the Fog: A Matt Cobb Mystery

Implausible from the outset, Matt Cobb's latest outing (after Killed in the Ratings) is laden with too many sour notes for the kind of natural warmth this series has previously generated. Matt, the house detective for an American TV giant known as the Network, flees the odious charms of the media biz for a vacation in England with his beloved Roxanne, who has overcome an early life of drug addiction to become wealthy and beautiful and cloyingly besotted with Matt, who loves her nearly as much as he loves himself. Matt does a favor for Lady Pam Arking, the head of a European TV network: he hands over a package--then watches the man to whom he delivered it die. Then he runs afoul of the London coppers and gets accused of the murder. DeAndrea's fixation on all things terribly English wears thin. He's not as bang up to date as he should be (e.g., new books are now discounted in England) and turns elitist and/or stridently anti-French at the drop of a hat. The actual crime stuff about phony schools offering courses that guarantee foreigners easy entry visas carries as much wallop as a glass of warm beer. Nothing works quite right, from mousy femmes fatales to the bizarre fact that Matt, after a few short weeks in London, knows more worthless local facts than could be accumulated in a lifetime spent within the sound of the Bow Bells. (Nov.)