June Mail

Freelance journalist Sarah Calloway doesn't usually use her investigative skills to track down ex-lovers, but when she sees an article in Time magazine linking her biologist ex-boyfriend, Dr. Frank Winslow, to recombinant DNA experiments and a possible AIDS vaccine, she decides to stalk him for a good story and maybe another date. She travels from New York to Paradise Valley, Calif., the site of the genetics engineering firm that employs Winslow, only to find that he is nowhere in sight and that his colleagues are mysteriously mute about his whereabouts. With the help of a variety of locals, from a roadside-diner waitress to a prominent San Francisco newspaper columnist, Sarah's persistence pays off in finding Winslow and in discovering a possible link between high-risk military experiments and the onset of the AIDS epidemic. This is the first in a projected mystery series featuring Sarah Calloway, an appealing, chatty protagonist whose banter keeps the story moving along. Warmbold is occasionally a bit too self-conscious in her well-intentioned empathy for the plight of her gay characters, but otherwise this is a promising debut. ( June)