MURDER BEGETS MURDER

The English-speaking community in sunny Mallorca pities but dislikes Betty Stevenage, who's been living in a rented villa with critically ill Bill Heron, and there are mixed feelings when she's found dead of mussel poisoning (Jeffries' specialty is evil food). As for Inspector Alvarez, he's thoroughly puzzled; so when another case sends him to England, the Inspector seizes the chance to look into Bill Heron's past, and--in an entertaining encounter with his stiffbacked opposite number--he discovers that Heron's rich wife died in exactly the same way as Betty Stevenage! So murder in Mallorca is indicated, even if the pathologist disagrees--especially after Heron's swank Mallorcan doctor dies in a car plunge from a cliff road. And Alvarez does figure it all out--though he knows that punishment will have to come from outside the law. . . . Not quite as smoothly plotted or styled as previous Alvarez outings (Troubled Deaths, 1978), but Jeffries exudes warmth and authority on Mallorcan doings, and Alvarez is as simpatico as ever. Reliable.