Too Many Questions

In this partially successful launch of a series by the author of Wild Justice , dress designer Kate Mullery hires London private investigator Laura Flynn to get a behind-the-scenes financial picture of a company interested in promoting her work. Soon after Laura delivers the information, her client's corpse is scooped out of the Thames, and Laura, clientless and unpaid, determines to track down the killer. At the same time, her elderly grandmother makes a deathbed request that Laura discover the fate of her own long-lost father. The search for her dad, which slows down her quest for Mullery's killer, often seems like one of the many digressions that preoccupy the active mind of this appealing protagonist. Witty and brave, Laura pursues her investigations, but the story's effect is diminished by trivial subplots and complex relationships between minor characters that squander the focus of an unoriginal plot and keep both heroine and writer from the success they deserve. (Mar.)