Rating: 
Summary: Great characters (as usual), disjointed plot
Review: This is the latest in the Elizabeth McPherson novels, McCrumb's series of lightweight mystery stories. This one is even lighter-weight than most and scarcely contains a mystery.Elizabeth has checked herself into a hospital to get treated for her depression following her husband's death. Meanwhile, her brother Bill has bought a veritable mansion for the law firm he and A.P. Hill run. It has a strange tenant, an old man that, according to one of Elizabeth's fellow patients (who claims to be a retired lawman), is a former criminal who died in a police blockade fire. The title, though, deals with two women, one a petty crook and the other her lawyer and a former rival and classmate of A.P. Hill's. They're going around the countryside seducing men into kinky bondage positions, then stealing their money. Hill's rival leaves her taunting phone calls. The climax comes when they go after Bill at the same time that Elizabeth's fellow patient finds that the criminal is still alive and goes after him. The rest would be telling. McCrumb's imagination and gift for character have good play in this outing, with the title characters as exemplars of that, as well as a host of small touches. My favorite is another of Elisabeth's fellow patients, who is industriously writing letters to various people to apologize on behalf of society. (She starts with the guy who was accused of the bombing in Atlanta.) The plot, though, is comparatively weak for one of these novels, with several threads that really don't hold together. So it ends up being an enjoyable book but not one of her better efforts.
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