The Letter of the Law

Bonnie Indermille, 36 and single, works at a dead-end job in the shabby Manhattan law offices of Ely Sneed, Kellogg and Petit, a once prestigious firm that has fallen upon lean times. Office manager Bonnie knows everyone's eccentricities, and she is not surprised that when Albert Janowski, one of the firm's partners, does not show up for his morning appointments, his wife Stephanie, Thurston Kellogg's daughter, remains unperturbed. Bonnie and everyone else is surprised, however, when Albert is found shot to death in a seedy hotel room in what appears to be a hastily abandoned and totally disheveled love nest. A cool and cynical New Yorker, Bonnie works as liaison with the police and on her own shrewd initiative uncovers information about the firm that points to carefully covered swindles, graft and murder. Her cooperation with short, pudgy and appealing homicide detective Anthony LaMarca inevitably turns to romance, and in spite of an attempt on her own life the doggedly persistent Bonnie keeps turning up clues that eventually lead the way to a host of unlikely conspirators. This first novel has a spunky, yet vulnerable heroine, a witty, upbeat tone and an explosive finale. (December 17)