Polo's Wild Card: A Nick Polo Mystery

Kennealy's series about San Francisco private eye Nick Polo (this is the fifth), while pretty standard stuff, clearly benefits from the author's experiences as a practicing PI. Polo attends a $500-a-plate charity dinner with his girlfriend (they have an ``understanding,'' thus allowing him to pop guilt-free into a few other beds as the story unfolds) to gain a seat in a high-stakes poker game held during the event. Several valuable paintings are stolen that night, and Polo is hired to recover them by wealthy art collector Claude Martel who, somewhat light-fingered himself, had grabbed the paintings when he was part of a special World War II OSS team established to recover works of art snatched by the Germans. Polo's own record as an ex-con creates the expected confusion, complicated further by an unsavory competing private eye, Martel's over-sexed wife and daughter, a tough Texas banker and a mysterious Interpol agent. Few surprises here, but Kennealy's hands-on knowlege of an investigator's techniques adds verisimilitude and interest. (July)