The White Mountain Murders

A valuable antique highboy is at the center of this amusingly wacky mystery. Private investigator Hugh Quint drives to a small New Hampshire town at the request of his his slightly mad friend Miles Cooper, who claims that his latest invention is sure to make ``big bucks.'' Once there, he discovers that Miles's mother, Sarah, expects him to find her ``missing'' daughter Amy, rumored to be somewhere in the White Mountains with Eric Cornplanter, an Abenaki Indian determined to reclaim his birthright. When the Cooper's lawyer is murdered, Hugh learns that Sarah has recently made a very strange will, bequeathing an antique highboy to Amy. Two more brutal murders follow, and there is no shortage of suspects in this rural backwater: Miles, who wants to sell the highboy to finance his latest invention; Eric, who needs the money to start his cultural rebirth; and a feuding couple who originally owned the highboy and lost it in a poker game. As he attempts to solve the case, Hugh gets involved with eccentric, inbred New Englanders, crooked antique dealers and lovers in a romantic triangle. Though somewhat lacking in suspense, this is lighthearted, entertaining fare. (Mar.)