Truck Shot: A Stoney Winston Mystery

The third in a series featuring sometime director Stoney Winston ( Double Exposure ), this droll mystery transfers the hero from the film industry to the realm of L.A. real-estate swindlers. Long lacking a satisfactory job, Stoney is teaching a filmmaking class at Angeles Commercial Design College (AC/DC, for short), located on grounds formerly owned by The Sainted, a spiritual leader of vague theology who has ``passed on.'' While one class is filming a pregnant goldfish in the art studio, an explosion in the ceramics lab kills the college president. When the president's secretary takes over his job, she discovers some shocking secrets about the college's finances, including the fact that the deceased president recently had withdrawn a large amount from the employment tax fund. Then Stoney discovers that the land occupied by the college will soon become the site of the Mountain Meadow Group's latest real-estate development project. Stinson's fine secondary characters and neat plotting are fortified by his resilient sense of humor. (July)