CLUBBED TO DEATH

Presently unemployed, his girlfriend in India, Robert Amiss has agreed once again to go undercover for his Scotland Yard pals- -Detective Superintendent Jim Milton and Sergeant Ellis Pooley (The English School of Murder, 1990, etc.)—this time hiring on as a waiter in London's private ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced ``Fanshaw'') club: Its newly appointed secretary has fallen to his death on the premises, and the suicide verdict has left Milton dissatisfied. Robert's secret probing turns up some very questionable practices in a club once prosperous and characterized by its raffishness, now almost the private preserve of five elderly members who don't take kindly to suggestions of change. There are two more deaths—definitely murders—before a lot of research and some inspiration on Robert's part solve a stubborn puzzle. The plot is bizarre but psychologically convincing—add to it a vivid cast of characters, from bullying, snuff-covered Colonel Flagg and old but still active rouÇ Fishbane to kitchen manager Gooseneck and his lover, the young Indian waiter-student Sunil. The writer's style is robust, witty, ironic and literate. All in all, a delicious romp.