Love Nest

The author of Sweetheart opens his new thriller with the murder of a young prostitute in affluent, would-be-exclusive Andover, Mass. Melody had connections with, and an emotional effect on, quite a few townspeople. Among those shattered by her death are a leading lawyer, a rich developer, his wife and teenage son, a Mafia princess and an aged aristocratic beauty, and Detective-Sergeant Sonny Dawson, who'd had a platonic affair with Melody, and who's determined to find her killer, which means he must unravel a tangled web of relationships. Everybody says he or she loved Melody, but nobody wants to help Dawson. A great deal of murk is generated by the characters' cryptic talkand Dawson's phlegmso that by the time we get to the quirky ending we don't much care about them or Melody, who remains elusive. The one vivid character is the Mafia princessfat, once beautiful and wonderfully selfish. She is worth a book. (March 31)