Green with Envy: A Nick Polo Mystery

The sixth Nick Polo story (after Polo's Wild Card ) again blends the PI's wry commentary on modern society--especially as experienced in San Francisco--with fast-paced adventure to create a thoroughly entertaining romp. Polo is accosted by a fellow investigator who accuses him of planting a bug on a client's phone. Since Polo didn't have anything to do with the tap, he visits electronic surveillance buddy John Henning, only to find his friend dead, apparently a suicide. Convinced that staunch Catholic Henning would not have killed himself, Polo is puzzled. When he is named executor of Henning's estate and discovers four emeralds in a safe deposit box, he is even more confused. Backtracking from a receipt in Henning's effects, the sleuth goes in search of the wife of a financially troubled San Francisco jeweler--and again comes upon a body. Ignored by skeptical police, Polo continues to investigate, turning up Colombian gem smugglers and a host of nasty customers in the process. (Nov.)