Final Tour

Fast-paced and wickedly fun, this engrossing psychological thriller follows a top musical star as she becomes victim, then sleuth. Sass Lindsey, 37, has just won four Grammys and is at the pinnacle of an astonishing career. She supports a small economy of her own-managers, protection services, filmmakers, a recording studio-and manufacturers have reaped enormous profits from her endorsements. Sass is physically and emotionally drained, however, and with long-range plans to remarry her first husband and spend some quiet time with her two supportive sisters, she calls a secret meeting to inform her powerful backers that she is going to retire. They are less than pleased and urge her to reconsider, but Sass is adamant. Soon after the meeting, her manager dies in what looks like suicide; then her attorney is murdered in an apparent mugging. Sass and her sisters, survivors of a traumatic and abusive childhood, are terrified. Sass investigates, putting her life at risk and allying herself with an unusual yet highly likable rescuer with his own troubling past. First serial to Good Housekeeping. (Dec.)