Reviews

This latest Loretta Lawson mystery (Don't Leave Me This Way, Columbine: Fawcett: Ballantine, 1991) begins with a bang and a flurry of activity that quickly subsides. Although the discovery of a decaying body on the grounds of friend Bridget's newly acquired country house inspires repeated police questioning, Bridget seems concerned only with her pregnancy until the victim's identity and probable links to Bridget and/or her husband give journalists a field day. Only then does Loretta respond with an investigation in order to save her friend. Solid British suspense with psychological overtones.

Loretta Lawson, English biographer, writing instructor and accidental sleuth seen before in Don't Leave Me This Way , stars in her fourth mystery with a feminist subtext. Loretta is attending the Oxfordshire housewarming party given by her friend Bridget Bennett and Bridget's new husband, Sam Becker, when a woman's body is found in the barn. Since Bridget is pregnant, the Thames Valley Police allow her to move to Loretta's home while they, and the press, investigate the scene. From often sensationalistic newspaper accounts, Loretta learns that the victim, Paula Wolf, age 19, was killed by a blow to the head; Sam finds out that the victim--like himself--was from the U.S. Then Loretta overhears a police conversation suggesting that Bridget is a prime suspect and realizes that her friend is being cagey about her own movements around the time of the murder. While Smith continually establishes her concern for women as victims in a patriarchal society, her considerable narrative skills keep the reader engaged, even though she withholds crucial information about the murderer until quite late in the game. (June)