False colors

Shy, repressed Ellen Downing, who runs a Housing Council in Columbus, Ohio, is yet another of those heroines needing only the right man to ignite beauty and personality. Ellen's brain seems to be on hold as well. Summoned by sly, conniving stepsister June to help cover up the murder of slum-landlord Irene Mattison--June's mother; Ellen's stepmother--our heroine helps dispose of the body and obediently masquerades as the dead woman in an elaborate charade dreamed up by June and boyfriend Brian. Not until the deaths of nosy neighbor Anabelle Wiley and blackmailing Willy Fisk does she make a move to disentangle herself from a self-made trap. Building suspense is one of the author's strengths (Fall From Grace, etc.), and she manages it here despite the fussy plot and Ellen's simpiness. Copious details on the machinations of nasty landlords--a very contemporary problem--don't quite disguise the story's old-fashioned air.