IN STONY PLACES

In his second outing, Detective Inspector John Morrissey (A Lively Form of Death, 1991) of the Malminister town police is making little headway in the search for a killer of young women- -three of them, seemingly chosen at random. The murderer taunts Morrissey in untraceable phone calls and even carries out a threat of harm to his family, while the frustrated Inspector and sidekick Neil Barrett explore false trails and search for nonexistent connections between the victims, their efforts further snarled by a copycat killer. In the end, painstaking police investigation, the quick mind of young constable Ian Hicks, and the clever camera work of a crippled boy come together to nail the killer and effect the hairsbreadth rescue of yet another victim. Unpretentious, brisk, and engaging example of the village procedural.