Biting the Wall

Llew McQuilla has a nice life in this funny and suspenseful mystery by the author of Brainchild. He loves his job as director of computer services at a small college in a rural East Coast town. His affair with Kay, the college doctor, continues to be a secret from her extremely jealous husband. All these good things come to an abrupt end when McQuilla is ``transferred'' to a make-work job in a dusty basement on the campus hinterland. McQuilla knows that his new job and the implementation of a new computer system (supposedly to upgrade the one he installed) are related events. Disgruntled, he determines to discover why he and his system had to be replaced. He gets much more than he bargained for when he finds that the new computer is the brain for an espionage ring. Unfortunately, his snooping alerts the spies, who set out to prevent him from sharing what he has learned with the authorities. At the same time, Kay's husband (brandishing a loaded revolver) comes looking for her paramour. Worse still, a suspicious fire has claimed some of the evidence that McQuilla needs to establish his case. Between a rock and a hard place, he prepares to do some fast talking and/or some swift running. This pun-filled romp has just the right mix of mystery and slapstick. (Jan.)