MOTIVE FOR MURDER

Echoes of REBECCA keep popping up in one Gothic tale after another. Emily Barton goes to the country to be a temporary secretary to writer Matthew Haig. There she discovers the secretary before her drowned, and she must decide as to who did it and why. A problem with the novel is that there are only two murder suspects, and the criminal is obvious long before the end. Norma West is magnanimous in her evenhandedness. She has a gentle voice that makes the listener happily worry about the safety of the heroine. B.H.B. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 02]