POISONED PINS

Adventure #8 for Farberville's bookstore owner Claire Malloy (Death by the Light of the Moon, etc.), widowed mother of teenager- from-hell Caron and sometime lover of police lieutenant Peter Rosen. Claire lives next door to this college town's Kappa Theta Eta sorority house, only sparsely occupied in the summer. Here, Claire—nosier than ever—gets involved in a series of incidents there—from screams in the night to prowlers and unexplained lights, culminating in the death of much admired senior Jean Hall, apparently run down by vanished Debbie Anne Wray, a wimpy pledge. Claire's persistence, not to say chutzpah, gradually uncovers connections to Law School Dean John Vanderson, his sleekly efficient wife Eleanor, the local hot-sheets motel, and a range of house activities undreamed of by the sorority's rules committee. Claire grows less appealing and amusing as her foibles are archly exaggerated; the plotting is also sometimes murky and unconvincing. Amiable but often dull fare.