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Sweet, Sweet Poison (1990)

by Kate Wilhelm
(#5 in Constance and Charlie)

First victim in this fresh, entertaining mystery is a watchdog named Sadie, owned by Al and Sylvie Zukal, two likable, spectacularly vulgar kvetches from the Bronx who invested some recent lottery winnings on a rural estate in Spender's Ferry, N.Y. After the Zukals' young friend David dies, the well-oiled, older detective team of Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl begins to question the conclusions of the local sheriff, who labels these and additional inventive killings - by poison, drugs, bees and gas -accident or suicide. Charlie and Constance turn up a barrelfull of suspects: kingmaker Warren Wollander; his childish daughter and her latest guru, a smarmy evangelist; and a gaggle of agrarian scientists, including Warren's wife.