TRIO IN THREE FLATS

Drink This (p. 390) was an agreeable enough mystery-comedy; but this time Inspector Nell Carter is caught up--very personally--in a more serious, far less entertaining case. Carter's new London neighbor, you see, is elegant, enigmatic Hilary Shaw, whose husband Peter has left her for mutual friend Anthony Carey. And Hilary is upset--by her newly-discovered pregnancy, by the unwelcome attentions of her besotted brotherin-law, and by a recurring dream in which she finds Peter dead in their once-shared house. Naturally, then, Peter is indeed found dead--by his new housemate Anthony. So Nell, by now sleeping with Hilary, sets out to do some unofficial detecting . . . while all of the characters (including Hilary's silently adoring art-gallery boss and young neighbor Cathy, an artist/teacher who silently adores Nell) unburden themselves at tedious, soap-operatic length. With an unconvincing culprit and additional chit-chat about a missing vase--a dull, pretentious, and disappointing second appearance for Dewhurst's Inspector Carter.