LAYERS OF DECEIT

Jeffries (Three and One Make Five, Unseemly End, etc.) once again sets the virtues of the native Majorcan, in the person of softhearted Inspector Enrique Alvarez, against the bitchy, insular expatriate English, of whom the murder victim was a perfect example. Steven Collum, left a fortune by his late wife, was a womanizing, social climbing snob with no apparent affection for his drifter half-brother Alan, and close only to his crippled cousin Amelia, one of several cousins forming the remainder of the Collum family. And so, naturally, the prodigious amount of evidence pointing to Alan, Steven's only heir, as the murderer, arouses the canny Inspector's suspicions. He eventually weeds out jealous husbands, vengeful brothers and scorned women, and aided by a trip to England, arrives at a neat and credible solution. Puzzle and sleuthing are solid but marred by some careless, repetitive writing and by a final resolution that borders on the maudlin. Not the best of Jeffries.