THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES

Ever-eclectic in her borrowings of style and substance from the best English mysteries, Grimes (The Dirty Duck, Jerusalem Inn, etc.) makes her latest a real jumble: part psychosexual gothic (Ö la P.D. James), part sentimental tragicomedy, part eccentric farce—with far more satisfaction in the separate parts than in the unconvincing whole. The story begins very Inspector Morse-ishly—as somber Supt. Jury fails in love with lovely widow Jane Holdsworth, only to lose her almost immediately: Jane commits suicide by overdose—or is it murder? To find out which, Jury sends his amateur sidekick Melrose Plant up to the Lake District, where the wealthy Holdsworth clan resides—headed by irascible Adam, 89, whose beloved poet-grandson (also a suicide) was Jane's husband. Is someone perhaps killing off all of Adam's favorite relatives for inheritance purposes? If so, then Jane's 16-year-old son Alex—a grieving would-be sleuth—may be in danger. Alex's moody encounters with teen-aged cook Millie (child of another suspicious suicide) are gently affecting; old Adam's capers at a local retirement-home are giddily amusing; there's a whole gallery of fetching characters. But the pieces never come together effectively. Nor does the plot—which involves too many family secrets and oblique motives. Still: superior page-by-page entertainment from a skillful imitator.