Woman Slaughter

It's awful: dear old Malcolm Creed, one of Virginia Freer's favorite neighbors, has been killed in a hit-and-run. Even worse, Malcolm's wife (er...widow) was in hospital at the time, so her homecoming is going to be a misery. Aside from the expected grief, she'll need lots of help with meals and so forth, so you'd think it would be a blessing that Felix--Virginia's on-again/off-again husband--is on hand, paying one of his occasional visits. But a Felix Visitation is never an unalloyed blessing: he has what one reviewer called "a dishonest relationship with the truth," and also a positive genius for seeing conspiracy and murderous intent in what looks to the ordinary person like a tragic but garden-variety accident. Of course, he also has a remarkable knack for being right about this and for picking out the bad guys. So one shouldn't grouse about Felix too much. Not too much.