OK, Gloria is not really old, but let’s say she gets at bit more than half off when dining at Bill Knapp’s on her birthday. Having returned from years in California to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts, Gloria lives above a mortuary. This doesn’t bother her in the least for two reasons. One: she is not the squeamish type. And two: the mortuary is owned and operated by her best friends, Rose and Frank Gagliani.

Gloria has settled happily into retirement from her job at Cal Berkeley (where she worked in crystal spectroscopy, if you know what that is!) and now enjoys doing some consultant work with the local police. Fortunately for her, she has an “in” with the Revere Police because her boyfriend is Sergeant Matt Gennaro. Though still in the dinner and canasta stage, the two seem quite compatible, although Gloria sometimes has problems telling Matt about her slightly unethical manner of investigating. In less than a year in Revere, Gloria has already had her share of run-ins with crazed murderers. And this time, her adventure is no less dangerous.

Michael Deramo is an elderly janitor in the classified wing of the lithium labs. When Michael is murdered near his home (strangled with piano wire), and his house broken into, police suspect more than a robbery/homicide. When evidence turns up that Michael may have been blackmailing someone, Gloria is sure he was using secret information from the lithium labs. Could it be espionage in the lab? An argument over patent rights? Could the lab have been illegally dumping dangerous lithium battery waste? Or had some brilliant scientist developed a new type of battery to power our computers and cell phones?

Pretty soon everyone is on Gloria’s list of suspects. First she encounters the research head honchos, John Hammer and Fred Laughton. Arrogant and condescending, Gloria immediately adds them to her list of blackmail victims. Then there is their equally annoying attorney, Barry Richards. Add to the mix Francis Deramo, the son of the murder victim who just happens to run a law firm with Barry Richards and is married to Barry’s sister. Of course when Francis pulls a gun on Gloria at his father’s funeral, his prospects as a murderer shoot way up.

Then another murder occurs, with the body dumped in front of Gloria’s mortuary home to send her a message. After this, a shaken but tenacious Dr. Lamerino is officially dismissed from the case. But of course, you guessed it. Gloria is not a quitter.

The most appealing part of this periodic table mystery is the quirky and likable Gloria. She admits to preferring a statistics book to a bestseller, worries over “going steady” with Matt, and enjoys Italian food and living above a funeral parlor. While this is not a high-action thriller and the pace is occasionally slow, The Lithium Murder succeeds because of Gloria. With apologies to Gloria (and author/physicist Minichino) for not recalling the fourth element on the periodic table, I promise to study up before the next enjoyable mystery arrives!

--Martha Moore