Blood Lake

Forty-four-year-old Harry Garnish is, despite his small size (5 7 and eyeglasses, an old-fashioned, hard-drinking Chicago private eye; his boss, Bridget O'Toole, is a large, 60-ish ex-nun who used to teach grammar school. City-kid Harry is sent to the Wisconsin woods to check on a client's possibly errant wife. Harry is smitten with the beautiful Cheryl, but shortly after he discovers a blackmail ring at the country resort, he finds her battered body dumped in a lake. Bridget arrives, and soon they're both entangled in another murder, adultery, several kinds of blackmail and more mayhem before the ambiguous but satisfying ending. The pace, plot and Chicago color are good; the rich cast of characters (cowboy, Indian, country lawman, ex-jazz musician) is better; and best of all is the unlikely duo of Bridget and Harry. Her toughly genteel philosophizing (""There are facts, Harry, and there are truths'') plays wonderfully off his wisecracking ribaldry. The partnership is as winning as it was in McConnell's previous effort, Murder Among Friends. (June 3)