SOME RUN CROOKED

This superior example of truly unraveling detection is set in the Derbyshire village of Peak Low in 1958--when stranger Julie Wimpole is found dead in the rocky Drydale valley--but Julie's murder is a replica of two others in the same spot, one in 1940, one in the 18th century. And non-plodding Inspector Kenworthy, with his green but quick Watson, Sergeant ""Shiner"" Wright, discovers that Julie knew about the earlier murders, even seemed obsessed with them in a delicate way. Could she have had some role in the 1940 killing--when she was only 147 Did she come to Peak Low to be killed?--lured by what force? Worry not: there's nothing even vaguely supernatural going on here to interfere with a model of leisurely but taut narration, a splendid sense of physical locale and locally colored psychology, and a thoroughly and hideously believable unearthing of old secrets and ancient graves. The historically-minded (Dead Nettle, 1977) Mr. Buxton's strongest showing yet.