A PERFECT MATCH
By
A smoothly professional first novel with elements of low-key police procedural and traditional puzzle. Stansfield's Detective-Inspector Lloyd, divorced and Welsh, teams up with unhappily married Sergeant Judy Hill to investigate the murder of Julia Mitchell--a blond, brittle, recent widow who came to Starts field to look over some of her inherited property. . . as weekend guest of brother-in-law Donald Mitchell and wife Helen. The blatantly obvious top-suspect: young widower Chris Wade, the new passion of Helen Mitchell (who mistakenly believed that Julia was Donald's latest conquest). But Lloyd and Judy, in the midst of their blooming affair, find time to worry about some perplexing questions: Why were the victim's clothes removed? (There was no sexual assault.) Why were they hidden in two places? What about the missing fingerprints? Where does Donald's real mistress fit in? And the answers lead to a tidy solution--at the close of a neat, unpretentious, pleasantly readable debut.