Anne's house has been commandeered by her latest client, Dr. Arlene Handelman, a pushy radio psychologist who has bulldozed in as unwelcome and uninvited houseguest, ostensibly to force herself and Anne into a marathon session of writing her book on parenting teens.

In frustration, Anne takes to the beach for an early morning jog and immediately stumbles on the dead body of Abby Podowski, a 16-year-old girl whom Anne vaguely recalls as worldly and tough. Abby's body has been arranged inside a ring drawn in the sand, her stiff hand clutching pills of the hallucinogenic drug Ecstasy, an apparent suicide note by her side.

Sadly, Anne is not completely surprised that this hard little girl should come to an unhappy end, but the signs of ritual that mark Amy's demise makes her question whether the death was in fact a suicide.

Anne has barely recovered from finding Abby's body and her consequent involvement in the police investigation when she gets a visit from her friend Delia, a woman many years Anne's senior. Delia reports that her grandniece, Tracy, 16 and a classmate of Abby's, is missing; she never came home after dinner the night before.

Tracy is a sullen, rebellious teen, whose parents are dead, and she often runs off, but this time she has disappeared without word or argument, and that, along with Abby's death, has Delia especially worried. She asks Anne to quietly look into Tracy's disappearance. Anne reluctantly agrees to help her longtime friend, who has helped Anne so often in the past.

Anne begins her search for Tracy's whereabouts by approaching Tracy's friends. When she finds them, the girls are performing a magic spell of some kind and sticking pins into a makeshift doll. In quick succession, Anne uncovers more indications of black magic and devil worship among Oceanside Height's teens. Late at night, sounds of rhythmic drumbeats and chanting rise above the crashing waves. There are sightings of large sky-borne Satanlike apparitions. And Anne's search of Tracy's bedroom reveals a diary filled with black magic references, a bloodstained trunk and traces of burnt offerings.

Anne is learning just how cosmopolitan her town is, but she must discover who killed Abby before Tracy or some other misguided but innocent member of the teenage coven turns up dead.

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a slow-moving mystery that builds to a surprising end - it is a good bet most readers will be challenged by all the plausible suspects. Anne is a likeable sleuth, with her worries she'll end up unmarried and alone and her gentle pursuit of Mark Trasker, her police detective friend whose attentions toward her run so warm and cold Anne cannot decide whether he's truly interested.

There is a bit too much going on in this book. What with Dr. Arlene moving in, Anne's trying to research her idea for a guide to teenage witchcraft, her attempts to counsel several young people, the drug running, the grass-roots senior citizen movement to curb nighttime beach activity, and Anne's romantic problems, but it all goes into the mix that makes up life in Oceanside Heights, and that is not an all-together-bad thing.

--Lillian Jackson