A Death in a Town

Ranking with the best of Waugh's 35-plus novels, this mystery by the 1989 MWA Grand Master recalls his powerful Last Seen Wearing . . . . Here the citizens of affluent Crockford, Conn., tell their versions of the events following the rape-murder of ``nice'' Sally Anders, age 16, whose body was found outside the house where she was babysitting. Dorothy Meskill describes a suspicious stranger who had approached her after her husband Edward left for his high-school teaching job; everyone hopes this intruder, ``not one of us,'' is guilty. But the investigation uncovers shabby secrets about the local minister and others in the seemingly upright town. Sally's brother and friends make the strongest impressions as young adults living in a world of dangers unknown to previous generations. And the teenagers' unclouded vision leaves them unsurprised, unlike their elders, when the murderer is caught. (Oct.)