THE HABIT OF WIDOWHOOD

Though the 17 stories collected here range from the disastrous effects of arranged marriage (``Cupid's Dart'') to a dog's-eyeview of homicide (``Dog Television''), no one but Barnard (The Bad Samaritan, 1995, etc.) could have written any of them: The tone of ironic, amused malice is unmistakable. Given the author's formulaic handling of murder—which arises almost invariably from thwarted passions chastened by a tone of high civility—the resourcefulness of Barnard's plotting is impressive, whether he's reuniting a boarding-school bully with his former butt (``The Stuff of Nightmares'') or suavely updating Charlotte Brontâ (``Reader, I Strangled Him''). Only the quietly acidulous ``Gentleman in the Lake'' and the farcical ``Balmorality'' are true standouts, but fans will devour the whole collection in a single guilty gulp.