THE SEEDS OF MURDER

A somewhat bland new challenge for London lawyer Rosa Epton (A Dangerous Business, etc.). Here, her fondly regarded godmother Margaret, 80-ish and much married, has recently wed Adrian Pickard, pianist on a cruise ship and half her age. They've settled in Greenborough, near London, and soon after are calling on Rosa for help. Harry Wells, a stranger to their village, has been murdered on the grounds of Warren Hall, a local prep school, and Adrian's come under suspicion, heightened when he's found trying to enter the school in the dead of night. There's surely a connection to the still remembered scandal at Warren Hall involving the disappearance of a student and a subsequent murder trial. A brutal second killing, of a relic from that long-ago era, focuses Rosa's attention on a likely culprit. She's off-base, unfortunately—but so are plotting, pace, and, above all, motivation, in this amiable trifle. Definitely lesser Underwood.