The Great Grave Robbery

NYPD Detective ``Little John'' Rawlings returns for a fifth reprise ( The Great Diamond Robbery ) to solve an unusual robbery in this lively mystery. BCI Corp., a private investigations firm on the trail of an artificial virus stolen 20 years ago, asks Rawlings and Chief of Detectives, Walter Vadney, for help. The virus allows cryogenically suspended people to be safely thawed, and is worth $100 million in 1988 dollars. Impersonating a terminally ill patient who wants to be suspended after death, Rawlings visits a man who builds ``cryocapsules,'' and learns that one of them has been bought by a doctor in Trinidad. Rawlings takes a buddy, Det. Louie Diaz, and two female detectives to the tropical island, ostensibly to partake of carnival. When one of the party is killed by an act of sabotage meant for Rawlings, the original robbery, whose penalties have expired, becomes an active murder case. Meanwhile, Rawlings learns that the likeliest robbery suspect was cryogenically suspended in 1967. Or was he? Readers will have fun with Minahan's entertaining narrative. (Nov.)