Collateral Damage

Cindy and Catherine Shepherd are the dysfunctional daughters of a wealthy CIA agent who died in disgrace. Now their family home of Calvert Manor is up for sale, and the bidding is high. Though it's clear from this novel's start that the mansion harbors valuable secrets, the details of the Shepherd p re's demise are hazy, and the action doesn't get rolling until Catherine's fianc , Preston Demarest, dies suddenly in an upstairs bedroom. Soon retired spy Richard Michaelson (returning from Worst Case Scenario) and his bookstore-owning lady friend, Marjorie Randolph, are overseeing the auction of the house and solving a murder. Other notable characters include Avery Phillips, a villainous bidder who used to be Michaelson's colleague, and C-Sharp, a rock guitarist who's Cindy's lover. The plot is elaborate but awkwardly constructed, and the novel's slick solution depends on an improbable motive. Given the choice between fine-tuning his plot and having his characters opine smugly, Bowen goes for verbal shenanigans nearly every time, to his detriment--and the reader's. (June)