Growing Light

This spirited debut mystery mines California's New Age culture--neatly skewering its tendency toward overinflation--for comedy, romance and a puzzling murder. On her first day of work at Growing Light, a northern California firm that produces horticultural software, young widow Anne Munro discovers the body of her boss, George Ashby, with a knife in the back. The police find a note in Anne's tote bag suggesting she killed him. To prove her innocence to the suspicious sheriff, Ann enlists the help of his sympathetic lieutenant and hunts down company secrets. Claims to company ownership are made by the firm's vice-president and by the new widow, who was about to divorce the victim. Further complications are added by the staff of ex-hippies and former flower children who include mantra-muttering Carein, an ex-convict shipping clerk and a chief engineer named Jimi Hendrix Johannsen. Anne also encounters a group of disgruntled former employees who meet weekly at a local diner and an angry programmer who says the firm's main product was stolen from him. A cast of outrageous and/or sympathetic characters and a deftly handled plot will capture readers' hearts. (Sept.)