DEATH IN STORE

Eight quite clever stories introducing Verity ``Birdie'' Birdwood—``an odd little person who set herself up...as some sort of amateur detective.'' The incisive, pragmatic, and frequently tart Birdie—scourge of criminals from one end of Australia to the other—recalls the first murder she witnessed on the Christmas Eve she was 14 (``Forbidden Fruit''), then, in later years (``Death in Store''), solves the murder of a department store Santa and his helper. In between, she and her friends Toby, an overweight, lonely copper, and the lively Kate and her young daughter Zoe grapple with a sliver of poisoned quiche (``Ladies' Day'') that brings a wandering husband to heel; a wife who expires on a beach towel in full view of all the bathers (``Death Warmed Up,'' the best tale here); and two fatal identity switches (``Flashpoint'' and ``Death in Ruby''). A poignant ``Rabbit Killer'' finds Birdie wrestling with a disgruntled farm family, and the short ``Roses for Do- Hoppy'' places her on a street corner where a newspaper-seller, a flower vendor, and a hotel doorman collide. A notch or so below Christie and John Dickson Carr at their best—but gently written puzzles for ratiocination fans of a cozy bent.