MOTIVE FOR MURDER

If Emily Barton had ever read a modern gothic, she'd never have taken that secretarial job with eminent Cornwall novelist Matthew Haig. Now, immured in crusty Matthew's chilly household- -along with his lonely daughter Sarah, his disapproved cousin Mike Stacey, the servants who politely decline to answer her questions about her so abruptly vanished predecessor—she can only wonder what ever became of vibrant Linda Harvey, and why conversation always falters whenever Emily asks where the best places are for a swim. Experienced readers, of course, will know from the beginning what happened to Linda, and—once Emily has brushed off an unsubtle, unwelcome pass from a crass interloper to reveal a straightforward romantic triangle among herself, Mike, and Matthew—will be able to venture confident guesses about much else besides. (Such readers will be a lot less surprised than Emily by the revelation that Linda was an excellent swimmer.) The twist here—that Matthew's novel, Motive for Murder, is a fictionalized account of an unsolved recent case, the bludgeoning of a local artist—does nothing to disrupt the modest, though genuine, pleasures of the secretary-in-peril genre. Readers most familiar with the genre, however, are least likely to be caught napping. Fraser (I'll Sing You Two-O, 1996, etc.) unveils each eminently predictable development with professional skill.