Wicked Designs

Lillian O'Donnell's current novel returns us, ingeniously, to the adventures of Mici Anhalt, the woman sleuth praised by the New York Times as "human enough to laugh at, desperate enough to feel anxious for."No one could want to murder Blanche Landry, a rich and respectable New York dowager. The police claim that her death, at the underground entrance to a Manhattan subway, was a simple case of drug overdose - the corpse was shot full of cocaine. But Blanche's devoted nephew, Norman, is convinced that his health-fadist aunt was no addict, and he enlists Mici in the case.Suspecting a cover-up, the single-minded investigator bypasses the uncooperative police department and discovers an ally in the District Attorney's office - Tony Rygel, an assistant DA who is also a soon-to-be-rekindled old flame of Mici's.It is not until Mici penetrates the secrets of her suspects' pasts that the fragments of the investigation fall into place. In a secluded boathouse in Connecticut, the politics of family challenge the politics of love and power, and the stunning truth of the Landry murder is revealed.