Investigator Elizabeth Chalice is summoned to Villa Janus at Christmas when Jonty Caswell-Jones, the family patriarch, is poisoned. A coffee merchant by trade, Jonty was haunted by the loss of his brother in the war and had alienated many of his close relations. Soon a second person is murdered and Elizabeth is placed in jeopardy. Evoking the country house mysteries of the genre's golden age and relayed entirely in interviews and asides to the reader, Twelve Motives for Murder has an intriguing heroine in Elizabeth, who harbors her own secrets. (BH)