Clio Browne: Private Investigator

PI Clio Browne, daughter of the first black private detective in St. Louis, does not like to get involved in family spats, but she pushes her reservations aside when Serena Scutter-Paschal offers her $10,000 to check out her son Wally's girlfriend. When Clio discovers the woman, Angel Moon, dead, and Wally at the scene of the crime, she finds it hard to believe that Wally is the murderer, although the police arrest him, citing overwhelming evidence. The plot is complicated by Wally's escape, additional suspects, a missing ring cut from the dead girl's finger and a copycat murder, but neither these distractions nor an endearing cast of supporting ``detectives'' (including Clio's mother, who harbors Wally from the law) atones for the haphazard denouement and plodding pace. Motives are unexplored until the end, coincidences abound, and police and legal procedures remain on shaky ground throughout. Despite its promise, this first novel is as uninspired as its title. (Nov.)