THE CROZIER PHARAOHS

The final work in this veteran's long, highly-respected, and prolific career (There Lies Gloria Mundy, etc.) concerns the Rank sisters, Bryony and Morpeth, neighbors of psychiatrist-sleuth Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley and her secretary Laura Gavin. Since the death of their doctor father and the departure of Dr. Mortlake, his partner, the sisters, odd as their names, have started breeding rare Pharaoh hounds and hired Susan, another eccentric, as kennel maid. The household is beset by prowlers, dognappers, and morbid undercurrents that climax in the discovery of two murder victims, one unidentified, in the surrounding lonely landscape. Dame Beatrice cleverly manages to identify the stranger and soon recognizes that the key to the murderer's identity lies in the death of Dr. Rank. Helped a little by some interesting dog lore and a few lively conversational passages, this leisurely, rambling, largely unsuspenseful story is unlikely to win new fans for its late author--but will probably please her legions of established ones.