WIND-UP

Vintage-toy dealer Peter Marklin (Clockwork, 1989, etc.) again finds himself chasing a murderer when a good chum, the old reprobate Gus, asks him to prove that the voyeuristic Ron Ball, Inspector Digby Whetstone's most likely suspect, didn't kill Maurice Maitland and then badly batter his wife Mary: after all, on the night of the tragedy, Ron was hiding in their garden peeping at Mary in her nightie. As Peter and his pretty live-in Arabella snoop around, they discover that Maurice had a mistress, and Mary a lover—plus a new set of friends and a sudden interest in nudism. Did Mary engineer her husband's death in order to inherit his million-pound toy collection? Her best friend Chrissie can't believe it, and the true, sorry tale comes out only after a burglary at Peter's store, arson at the mistress's costume-shop, a horrific episode at a nearby tank museum, and a weepy (albeit gun- toting) confession. Reasonable clues, but forced repartee and contrived antique- toy chat make this far less engaging than the charming Tinplate or Die-Cast.