The Painted Lady

Elias Hackshaw, the publisher of a small-town newspaper in upstate New York who was last seen in The Nimby Factor , is easily distracted by newcomer Hester DelGado, a petite, pretty woman who wears spike heels and tight jeans. Appealing to more than Hack's lively libido, Hester is also renovating an old Victorian home that Hack covets. She wants to open a residence for fallen local girls, but problems plague her: the locals take a dim view of charity too close to home, strange satanic graffiti suddenly flourish in the neighborhood and the lurid pink paint Hester chooses for the house's exterior isn't to Hack's or the neighbors' liking. Neither is the murder of one of the fallen girls. The victim, who was a pal to a local cop who hates Hack's guts, had said she was pregnant but wasn't. No one is above suspicion, including Hester, whose past is shadowy and whose New Age mysticism isn't the only thing soon grating on Hack's nerves. In his latest exploration of his hero's note-taking days and poker- and beer-filled nights, Wilcox seems to scant the crime, taking greater delight in delving beneath the crusty rural exteriors to unearth crustier rural interiors. Hack is, as always, the proverbial pearl before swine, a romantic hiding in pessimism, a jewel of a journalist buried beneath the dreary society columns. He'd shine in a more challenging case. (Feb.) Correction: