Now You See Her

Dewhurst's 16th novel, which follows Death Came Smiling and was published in Great Britain earlier this year, wobbles on an intriguing concept that never quite gels. Phyllida Moon, an accomplished 38-year-old actress, lands the role of a TV detective, and, with time to spare before shooting begins, applies for work at a Seaminster detective agency. Turned down initially, she is hired after she poses convincingly as a potential client. She's assigned to investigate a widower whom a neighboring woman suspects of molesting his teenage daughter. Disguising herself as a parent interested in the daughter's school, Phyllida is at the school when a male student is strangled. In another disguise, she is present at the school when one of the daughter's friends seemingly falls to her death from a high window. Dewhurst skillfully connects these events, but Phyllida's myriad and rapid name and character changes become hard to credit in the end. (Dec.)