MISTS OVER MOSLEY

Detective-Supt. Grimshaw is dispatched by the powers-that-be to the Yorkshire village of Marldale--where rumor has it that some well-educated ladies are practicing witchcraft with uncommon (if harmless) success. But, as usual, Grimshaw finds that aging, pokey, laconic Detective-Inspector Mosley (Mosley by Moonlight, etc.) is way ahead of him: Mosley seems to know just what the ""witches"" are really up to--that they're cleverly engaged in a civic-minded hoax designed to protect some local land from shady speculators. But what about the murder of village busybody Mrs. Beatrice Cater? Is that also linked to local land-deals--and/or the witchcraft capers? Grimshaw and Mosley investigate simultaneously, from very different angles. And again it's low-key Mr. M. who comes out ahead, figuring out just what high-level evil Mrs. Cater uncovered--and forcing the key villain to commit suicide (amid the witches' festive last bow). Neither as amusing nor as tidy as previous Mosley frolics, but curiously engaging nonetheless: distinctive, if minor, work from the late John Buxton Hilton, aka John Greenwood, who'll be much missed.