QUAKER SILENCE

Add thoughtful Elizabeth Elliot, clerk of the Cambridge (Mass.) Quaker Meeting House, to the roster of aging amateur sleuths. Here, the mid-60s Elizabeth finds herself in opposition to the police, who have incarcerated Tim, a homeless renegade, for the murder of wealthy John Hoffman just because Tim denounced Hoffman and his ethics at a Sunday Meeting of the Society of Friends. More to the point, Elizabeth thinks, is that Hoffman was planning to change his will; that his lawyer-nephew lied about it; and that someone stole Hoffman's journal—which outlined his plans and his new beliefs. Does the murder tie in, somehow, with the topic currently being debated by the Meeting—same-sex marriages? Gentle Elizabeth, who here must resort to housebreaking, eavesdropping, and lies of omission to further the plot, ultimately ekes out the truth by breaking an alibi—and with it any chance the Meeting had to profit from Hoffman's death. A somewhat stodgy, old-fashioned debut (characters wonder what will happen ``on the morrow''), but enhanced by descriptions of Quaker customs and philosophy. Introspective traditionalists will find much to mull over. A follow-up is in the works.