Something to Kill for

Holtzer crafts an engaging debut from a usually harmless suburban staple: garage sales. On a Saturday morning in Michigan, members of the Ann Arbor Antiques Association are making the rounds of local garage sales when disliked dealer Joanna Westlake is found fatally bludgeoned. Fellow dealer Joyce McDonald and her friend, computer consultant Anneke Haagen, hear Joanna whisper her last words: ``The Jap?'' Worried that the phrase might incriminate fellow member Ellen Nakamura, the group asks Anneke, who has consulted at the police department, to follow Lt. Karl Genesco's investigation. While police suspect that Joanna was murdered for something valuable she might have bought at a sale, the subsequent murder of a talented art student, lover of another regular on the garage sale circuit, suggests other possible motives to Anneke, an attractive and independent woman in her 40s. She mentions her speculations to Genesko, who asks her to construct a computer program to sort out suspects and movements, a job complicated by the murder of another dealer. Working in tandem, Anneke and Genesko, a former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, solve the mysteries in this refreshing mix of computer lore, antiques trivia, romance and murder, winner of the publisher's 1993 Malice Domestic contest. (May)