The Next Victim

Freelance writer Taggert Roper does informal investigating to keep himself in liquor and his dog in kibble. The same afternoon that he gets a rejection slip for his literary western novel, college student Amy Matson shows up, asking him to look into the affairs of her murdered mother. Lorene Matson worked as a prostitute but also had a mysterious source of income, her ``insurance policy,'' which Amy hopes to cash in on. Tag figures that Lorene had a blackmail scheme going, and, indeed, finds that her personal papers contain a bombshell: Amy's father is televangelist Jack Redfield. But he can find no sign of blackmail or indication that Jack wanted to dispose of Lorene; he supports his daughter voluntarily. With some help from a pair of colorful friends, Rita Ninekiller, a newspaperwoman, and Wiley Harmon, a cop who is more proficient than strictly honest, Tag burrows into the lives of Jack and Lorene, discovering a secret darker than he ever imagined. By lacing this hard-boiled mystery with wry humor and delivering enough plot twists (including a second corpse) to grip the reader's interest, Sanders ( The Wild Blue and the Gray ) makes Roper's Tulsa, Okla., an entertaining place to spend a few hours. (Feb.)