THE BLUE-EYED BOY

Detective Superintendent Mike Yeadings (Three-Core Lead) now must decide whether young Joel Sefton was part of a mugging-murder series or whether he was mutilated by someone with a specific motive; Joel's family certainly disliked the lad, who seduced the anorexic Kit, blackmailed one or two of the others, and taunted and manipulated them all. Low-key but persistent, Yeadings and his men sift through the Seftons' alibis—and pry loose their stiff upper lips—until the various unhappy secrets of his upper-crust family are laid bare. Among them is a long-ago ``natural'' death that was actually a mercy killing—with unfortunate repercussions for poor Joel. A very cozy affair for quaint-English fans, though Yeadings is less well-defined than before, with only the briefest glimmer of his family life (the strength of Three-Core Lead). Admirable, then, if not irresistible.