Hand in Glove

January 4, 1993
Stiff, archaic dialogue and an overreaching plot that snakes from contemporary England back to the Spanish Civil War makes this lengthy novel of psychological suspense by Goddard ( Debt of Dishonor ) slow going. The action begins with the murder of 85-year-old Beatrix Abberley, canny sister of England's poet-warrior Tristam Abberley, who died a hero in the Spanish Civil War. On Beatrix's death, four packets of letters revealing a predictable hoax, some depressing truths and a treasure buried since the 1930s are mailed to persons unknown. The dead woman's schoolmarmish niece Charlotte Ladram and bumbling Derek Fairfax, upright brother of an ex-con framed for the murder, set themselves to solving the puzzle of these events. With cardboard characters--a womanizing American biographer, mousy Charlotte and her brassy sister-in-law Ursula--and a string of handy coincidences, Goddard, who signals nearly every twist his story takes, delivers a mediocre effort. Paperback rights to Pocket.