MURDER AMONG FRIENDS
By
More mild suburban malice for art consultant Kate Austen, whose client Mona Sterling is found dead (pills and Scotch) on her sofa. Since Mona didn't drink Scotch, Kate doesn't believe in the suicide theory her lover, Lt. Michael Stone, palms off on her, and it turns out that just about everybody in Walnut Hills, Calif., had it in for Mona--from the smooth-ex-husband avid to trim his alimony payments, to the embarrassed lover who can't afford to let his wife find out, to the irate husband of one of Mona's adult students at the community college. The solution, when it emerges from a tangle of pleasant gossip--Kate's always phoning people to ask if they might be the killer--comes out of nowhere. Busy, chatty, and as much like Kate's debut (Murder Among Neighbors, 1994) as one more Buick rolling off the line.