The Third Womansleuth Anthology: Contemporary Mystery Stories by Women

This often disappointing assemblage of tales from female writers about female sleuths nevertheless has some entertaining moments. Judith Post's ``Partners at the Pump'' offers a delightful protagonist; unaffected Charlie is as handy with a shotgun as she is with a car engine--skills she uses to help solve her mother's murder. In K. T. Anders's ``Don't Shoot, I'm on Vacation,'' a burned-out CIA agent whose case has hit a dead end teaches her boss not to mess with a woman who needs a few days off. Detective Sergeant Elena Jarvis encounters a strange murder weapon when a man accuses his ex-wife of trying to kill him with an exploding escargot in Nancy R. Herndon's ``Murder by Snail.'' The collection's low points include crimes that can't work: in Naomi Strichartz's ``Death on Fifty-Sixth Street'' the criminal must decide to commit the murder, empty out Tylenol capsules and fill them with digitalis in the time it takes the victim to make a pot of tea. Zahava edited this volume's predecessors. (Nov.)