Iced: A Kit Powell Mystery

Returning from her debut in 1991's Jinx, San Diego TV newswriter and sportscaster Kit Powell covers a local figure-skating championship, which she hopes will lead to more on-air assignments. Kit's interviews with skaters uncover a series of pranks aimed at the competitors' racial and ethnic backgrounds. Then an East German coach is shot and her body found under a freeway, just where the latest victim in a series of homeless murders has recently been discovered. Kit claims the story, but the station manager shoves Kit aside on the air and her arch rival reports live from the scene. Determined to investigate, Kit arranges to infiltrate the local neo-Nazi group that she thinks is responsible for the pranks and the death. When her guide turns out to be an undercover cop and is killed, Kit perseveres-much to the disapproval of her lover, police detective Nick Strummer, whose divorce proceedings and personal misgivings have rocked their relationship. Robitaille gives readers a snappy story, a savvy heroine and a backstage view of pro-am skating. (Nov.)