MURDER BY OWL LIGHT
by Corinne Holt Sawyer
Another charmless story set in the California retirement complex of Camden-sur-Mer, where massive Caledonia Wingate and her tiny friend Angela Benbow fancy themselves as sleuthing aides to the police (The J. Alfred Prufrock Murders, 1988, etc.). A trio of seemingly unrelated killings at the complex (beginning with that of a vending-machine serviceman) brings handsome lieutenant Martinez back into the ladies' lives. He and his minions are stumped—unable to find motive or murderer. Guess who comes to the rescue?! Pervaded by a coyly genteel air and the kind of dithery chatter that gives old age a bad name. Shameless padding and banal plotting don't help. A downer.