Snake Oil: A Saxon Mystery

Author of the Milan Jacovic adventures, Roberts also writes expert procedural novels colorfully narrated by an L.A. private eye named Saxon, a likeable tough guy with a soft heart. Although he is put off by wealthy land developer George Amptman, the detective, needing money in order to support his adopted son, Marvel, accepts a fat fee to follow up Amptman's fear that his wife, Nanette, has a lover. The apparently simple case assumes grotesque proportions when Saxon discovers Nanette outside the house where her lover, Peter D'Anjou, has been strangled. Believing the woman innocent, the investigator shoulders the task of tracing the killer, starting with inquiries into why D'Anjou was fired from a job with an oil company. The assignment leads Saxon into dangerous corners but finally gives him the satisfaction of exposing partners in a criminal scheme. (June)