Take-Out City

In this uneven but finally satisfying debut mystery, caterer Catherine Deean returns to L.A. after a month in Europe to find that someone has been using her apartment and her name. She tells the police but then surmises on her own that her neighbor Angela Cappelli, who lives with her religious fanatic mother, used the apartment to meet a man named Bobby. Cat feels sorry for Angela, who has since moved away with her mom, and doesn't press charges. When the catering company is hired by a famous director, Cat deals with the director's right-hand man, British Bob Crosswaithe, who agrees to fill in one night as a bartender. Conversations with a police detective lead Cat to wonder whether Crosswaithe and Angela's Bobby might be the same man. Cat becomes more and more convinced this is the case and links him to two English thugs who appeared at her door soon after her return. Angela goes on a killing spree, taking out her boss and the women she believes are corrupting ``her'' Bobby. Some confusion ensues as Cat's accounts are interrupted by Angela's views of her steamy affair, but the story takes on greater suspense when Angela decides Cat has become a threat to her happiness. (May)