A HOUSE TO DIE FOR

English lawyer Lennox Kemp, once a p.i. (Touch and Go, 1993, etc.), newly married to Mary Blane from the US, has bought a house in Newton from elderly Mrs. Channing, who’s headed for a nursing home. Mary’s next-door neighbor Gwendolyne Weston suffered a stroke sometime back and is now confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak. Primrose Sutton, unmarried, with a small daughter, provides most of Gwen’s care. Schoolteacher Grace Juniper has just moved into one upstairs flat; the other is occupied by young law clerk Gregory Venn, often visited by Jason and Blanche Quigley, twin relatives of influential Simon Quigley, chairman of the Town Council. No sooner has Mary made a note of all this than things start to go wrong next door. Grace takes a fatal fall down a back stairway; Gwen keeps struggling to communicate something to Mary; but the climax comes when Blanche is found strangled in nearby woods and Gregory charged with the crime. Lennox works with his old friend Inspector John Upshire to search out the truth, but it’s Mary, eavesdropping at the risk of her life, who uncovers the truth. Overpopulated and overplotted. The confusing family connections quickly pall, and only Mary’s spunky persona keeps a glimmer of interest alive.