THE FOURTH WOMANSLEUTH ANTHOLOGY: Contemporary Mystery Stories by Women

Fifteen original stories by (mostly) lesser talents, the exceptions being Edie Ramer, who weighs in with an amusing ghost tale (""The Seventh Dimension""), in which two long-dead wisps unfurl their ectoplasm and go after a current murderer; New York architect S. J. Rozan, who sets feisty p.i. Lydia Chin loose among a dispatcher of tubercular illegal aliens in ""Prosperity Restaurant""; and Barbara Wilson, who, in ""The Death of a Much-Travelled Woman,"" takes series sleuth Cassandra Reilly to the Scottish Highlands, where a writer is bogged down in more ways than one. Also on hand are previous Womansleuth authors Helen and Lori Carpenter (septuagenarian Emily Twiggs again tweaking her nephew); Rose Million Healey (poisoned chocolates); Nancy R. Herndon (a rigged ice-bag); Caroline Stafford (a compliment mistaken for a terrorist's code word); Naomi Strichartz (another long ballet brouhaha); and Linda Wagner (a slight but charming excursion into bigamy). Largely mediocre fare--with a few exceptions.