MRS. PARGETER'S PACKAGE

Mrs. Pargeter-that well-off widow of a gentlemanly master criminal (A Nice Class of Corpse, Mrs, Presumed Dead)-is off on another little vacation. This time, however, the going's not so posh or comfy because all the arrangements-a package tour to the Greek isle of Corfu-have been made by Mrs. P.'s traveling companion: friend Joyce Dover, a recent widow, still grieving and quite tense. And once on the island Joyce gets increasingly jumpy. So, when she's found dead in her villa bed, her wrists slit with broken glass, everyone assumes that the mournful lady has committed suicide. Everyone, that is, but Mrs. P.-who smells murder and starts sleuthing, assisted by an expatriate Englishman (an old crony of Mr. P.'s) with usefully shady connections. The chief clues? A bottle of sodium carbonate disguised as ouzo (which Joyce was carrying) and the highly murky past of Joyce's late husband (a sometime gunrunner of vaguely foreign nationality). And though the windup, involving long-buried family secrets, is rather a gnarl, this is gently amusing, mildly involving entertainment in the leisurely Brett manner-with strong local color (the seedy variety) and the distinctive charms of earthy-yet-proper Mrs. P.