An Infinite Number of Monkeys

A movie actor and moonlighting private eye called Saxon is the narrator of Roberts's debut. Machismo, sex, racy dialogueall the trappingsdefine the thriller but do not a Sam Spade make. Saxon moves around Los Angeles and its environs when beautiful Tori Weldon hires him to protect her father, author Buck Weldon. A millionaire on earnings from crime fiction he calls trash, Weldon has also created enmity; someone wants to kills him. The detective questions an embezzling movie producer, prototype for a Weldon work-in-progress; his former son-in-law, whom he beat severely for battering Tori; the publisher who stole Weldon's royalties; and others. During the investigation, the writer's lover dies instantly from poisoned cocaine that she snuffs before he does, the latest failed attempt to murder him. One of the novel's weaknesses is that the police take no steps against Weldon in the case, although he and the woman were alone in his house. Another is Saxon's failure to pick up the flaming clue in the early chapters. (July 20)