A Body in Belmont Harbor

Sleek plotting and an abundance of small diversions brighten Raleigh's second tour of Chicago's ethnically mixed Uptown area, which is guided by the tough-talking, loudly dressed shamus Paul Whelan. Two years separate the death of a struggling computer software specialist and the recent killing of a cheap bookie. But the latter was bookie to the businessman, the businessman's former partner has mysteriously moved on to bigger successes and the two men died at nearly the same location. The businessman's widow hires Whelan to investigate the partner, and soon the PI is trailing missing accountants and bald bruisers who cruise Rush Street's singles bars at night. While working in unofficial tandem with cop Al Bauman, whose attraction to violence is matched only by his thirst for booze, Whelan romances a pretty waitress and keeps a watchful eye out for a car of rednecks who seem intent on harassing the racially mixed couple who lives across the street. Raleigh, who delivered the goods in his debut novel, Death in Uptown , shows no signs of faltering. (Mar.)