ELLERY QUEEN'S MURDERCADE
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No. 29 and hard to beat--this includes Michael Innes' Sir John Appleby (a dead man attends his own ""Memorial Service""), Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn (he throws the Good Book citing ""Chapter and Verse"") and Agatha Christie's ""mystical"" detective Harley Quin who's slightly dim. There's a new Stanley Ellin (not his best), Pronzini, Philip MacDonald, Keating, Asimov and Robert Bloch's immobilizing ""See How They Run."" But the lady killers are deadlier than ever: Patricia Highsmith's ""Who Dies, Who Lives,"" Ruth Rendell, Florence V. Mayberry with a better mousetrap, and Celia Fremlin at the top of the form she's perfected with the too virtuous wife of a barrister who. . . . Optimal.