THE MISFORTUNES OF OTHERS

In a fourth outing, Snooky (As the Sparks Fly Upward, 1992, etc.) descends on his sister and brother-in-law, Maya and Bernard Woodruff, as they giddily anticipate the arrival of their first- born. Meanwhile, Snooky takes up with Maya's best friend, Weezy, an artist who turns to him for protection when she receives unnerving phone calls, anonymous notes, dead flowers, and then has all her paintings slashed. Who hates Weezy? There's her ex, of course, along with his new gal-pal, Gabriela, and five art students of Weezy's—with neurotic Alice (loathed by the others) among them. Snooky and Weezy fly off to St. Martin for a month or so to settle her nerves, then return home to more hate mail—and quickly deduce who sent it (most readers will have made this deduction many pages back), thus leaving them little more to do than pace the waiting room while Maya delivers her baby. Breezy dialogue and amusing takes on the various stages of a pregnancy—but no mystery to speak of and rather tiresome imitation Nick-and-Nora repartee.