Dancing in the Dark

Zukowski choreographs another impressive appearance by New York City PI Blaine Stewart and her sister Eileen, a lawyer, to follow up their stunning introduction in The Hour of the Knife . Texas cattle rancher Jacob Faradeux, in town to celebrate the posting of Faradeux Industries stock on the New York Stock Exchange, hires the duo to investigate the warning letter he has received from the Worldwide Animal Rights Movement (WARM). Though she finds Farradeux's attitude toward her demeaning, Blaine accepts the case, and at the same time agrees to check out claims of police harassment by one of Eileen's pro bono clients. When she arrives at the client's store on Manhattan's Lower East Side, however, she find it in flames from a bomb explosion. The critically burned client dies, leaving a bitter daughter who wants Blaine's help and a pious mother who wants revenge. Then a bomb hidden in a package injures Eileen, and a neighbor dies when another package delivered to Blaine detonates. Juggling all these cases, Blaine redoubles her efforts to determine the culprit's identity, which turns out to hurt her more than her bullet wounds do. Able both to cry and to take action, Blaine is a feisty female sleuth, well paired with her sister Eileen. (Nov.)