DEATH CAP

Detective Inspector Rudd returns, and, in his subdued, sensitive manner, sets out to determine who put Amanita Phalloides fungi (""Death Cap"") in with nice Mrs. King's dinner mushrooms. Nobody in the tiny town of Abbots Stacey has a bad word to say about the plump, attractive, shop-owning widow, but she is dead (a terrible death), and it couldn't have been an accident. Little by little, the secrets of the town are plucked out and pieced together--bad debts, hopeless fixations, petty enmities--and June Thomson (Case Closed, Not One of Us) again shows a quiet, lean power, blending the best, convincing elements of police procedurals with a feel for the priorities and passions of farmers, chars, and tradespeople.