A CERTAIN BLINDNESS

Divorced, 40-ish Eric Ward, obliged to leave his police job by the onset of glaucoma, now works as a solicitor. And while trying to find the unnamed heir to the estate of Arthur Egan, Ward uncovers some puzzling facts about Egan's long-ago conviction for the murder of Colonel Denby. . . who lived on a farm belonging to vastly land-rich Lord Morcomb (another client of Ward's law firm). So Ward visits the area, meeting Lord Morcomb's daughter Anne, estate manager David Penrose (whose interest in both the estate and Anne seems excessive), and Michael Denby, the dead Colonel's son. Furthermore, many of the locals still remember murderer Egan (as well as his wild half-brother Tommy); and when one of them--aged Sarah Boden--is found murdered just before Ward was about to visit her, Ward is convinced that Egan was framed. Absorbing old-crime sleuthing--neat but not gaudy, well-bred but never dull: another solid entry from the law-and-business-conscious Mr. Lewis.