THE THIRD WOMANSLEUTH ANTHOLOGY: Contemporary Mystery Stories by Women

Seventeen stories featuring every variety of woman sleuth--aged auntie, licentious p.i., etc.--but very few interesting ones. The notable exception is K.T. Anders's churlish spy in ""Don't Shoot, I'm on Vacation,"" who deftly sidesteps an assassination attempt, then turns the tables on her adversary. Also admirable is Judith Post's ""Partners at the Pump,"" a nonsentimental daughter's view of her runaway mom. The best-known name in the collection, Sara Paretsky, introduces Clementine Duval, who solves a murder (while handling P.R. for a Vancouver baseball team) in ""Lily and the Sock-eyes,"" an atypical, almost chattily written tale of a child-abuser. As for the rest, there'll be psychic crime-solving, Tarot-card crime-solving, crime-solving by intuition, crimesolving by bizarre clues (plastique molded into a snail shell, for instance), and crime-solving by odd-couple (in this case, Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein). Overall, better than the previous WornanSleuth anthologies--and Anders and Post are worth watching.