The Hour of the Knife

Readers looking for a feisty and intelligent female detective will be thrilled with the heroine of Zukowski's sizzling debut. PI Blaine Stewart heads to a Carolina seaside town to do some business with college friend Amanda Johnson before beginning the vacation her older sister and business partner has ordered her to take. But instead of delivering a security report on BAJ, the corporation Amanda and her husband own, Blaine is faced with Amanda's murder. A brutal mugging doesn't deter Blaine from investigating; she also stumbles onto a drug ring but can't link it to Amanda's slaying. Then a sheriff's officer who has set up a secret meeting with her is fatally shot just before the rendezvous. Blaine is convinced that BAJ plays a role in both crimes, but the sheriff claims to have solved them: Amanda, he says, was murdered by a local retarded boy, the policeman killed in connection with drugs. Despite widespread pressure to go home, Blaine pursues her suspicions in the manner of stalwart sleuths everywhere. Zukowski's pacing is good and her characterizations superb. (Jan.)