DEATH ON THE HEATH

Soon after his busman's honeymoon with wife Gabrielle in France (The Scottish Decision), Chief Supt. Gently is sent to the Suffolk coast to investigate the murder of Frederic Quennell, yachtsman and head of a successful printing firm. Also in the neighborhood: Gently's old adversary, artist Andrew Reymerston, who admits to an affair with Quennell's widow Ruth. But there are many other shady, even confusing Quennell relationships for Gently to untangle, rather tediously: the dead man's creepy alliance with neighbor Raymond Tallis (whose brother died, conveniently for both men, in a sailing accident); the doings of the Quennell's strange daughter Fiona and Raymond's strange step-son Paul; the suspicious behavior of the widow, who has no alibi and apparently wrote a death-trap note found on the body. So, despite the attractive Suffolk countryside, this is a disappointing dip in the admirable Gently series--with bumpy plotting, unengaging characters, an unsurprising culprit, and occasionally pretentious prose.