Game, Set and Murder (A Mystery for D.I. Costello)
Debut British novelist Flynn, a former actress and tennis aficionado, creates an appealing detective inspector in Angela Costello. Costello's at work on her first case, the murder of well-known and much-liked former tennis star Petar Belic on the first day of the Wimbledon tournament. As she investigates, she discovers numerous motives and suspects—a publicist of questionable repute with whom he had an affair, his strong wife, his business partner, the self-absorbed up-and-comer he's been coaching, and the relatives and friends who circle around him—due to her quality of being supremely talk-to-able (as her husband Patrick puts it). Counseling suspects regarding self-forgiveness and right action, managing her novice team with good humor and intelligence, and coming to grips with issues of self-confidence, Costello is upstanding and positive. She finds solutions because she cares about people and notices small details her rougher colleagues miss. The pleasure of this fine first novel is in being at Wimbledon with Costello for 272 pages. Let's hope there's more of her to come. (Nov.)