cover image Until It Hurts: An Ike and Abby Mystery

Until It Hurts: An Ike and Abby Mystery

Polly Whitney. St. Martin's Press, $22.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-312-15237-6

Abby Abagnarro and Ike Tygart, wisecracking former spouses, are back in a smug third adventure (after Until the End of Time). Abby, the ex-husband, is the macho director of a New York City morning news show. Ike, his ex-wife, is the show's blonde, adorably high-powered producer. While Abby, as background for an upcoming segment, is taping a pre-game shoot-around at Madison Square Garden before a game between the Knicks and the Bulls, scattered gunshot breaks out. When the smoke clears, someone has iced the Knicks center, the ""most famous basketball player in the world."" But the dead center--nasty on the court and off (an NRA member, he also liked to buy rain forest-burning ranches in Brazil)--didn't die from gunshot wounds. He was stabbed in the heart. Prime suspect is the Bulls' point guard, also a superstar but one with an environmentalist bent. Realizing that he may have caught something valuable on tape, Abby follows the irresistible logic of bad movies and decides not to hand it over to the police. He and Ike spend the rest of the adventure avoiding detective Dennis Fillingeri and dodging bullets while trying to solve the crime, which they do while working their day jobs, Rollerblading through wintry Manhattan and inventing a new dance step. You might admire their pluck, but they save you the trouble by admiring themselves. Eventually there's no choice but to start rooting for the Neanderthal detective. (Apr.)