BROKEN STAR

Anglophilic Yanks from John Dickson Cart to Martha Grimes have written some of the most British detective stories of all--like this hardcover debut from Brown: a salt-and-pepper pairing of Bath investigator Max Shepard and transplanted Virginian widow Elizabeth Blair. Max, first hired by Larry Aitken, overbearing game-show host turned landed squire, to find who's been threatening him with letters and phone calls, shifts into high gear--like calling on amiably gossipy Elizabeth--when the police pull in Larry for poisoning old Dr. Charles Wetherell, who'd been demanding an audit of a church fund Larry may have been watching too sharply. Efficient, unsurprising plotting; medium-grade banter; obvious culprit.