Beggar's Choice: A Nick Polo Mystery

Going down smooth and easy, the ninth Nick Polo adventure (following Vintage Polo, 1993) begins when a street person named Scratchy asks the San Francisco PI to check out three license plate numbers. Soon Scratchy is killed in a suspicious hit-and-run accident, leaving behind a lot of cash and a near-perfect fake Rolex watch. The license plates lead Polo to a member of the city's board of supervisors, a powerful Chinatown gangster and an ex-CIA agent whom Polo knows from his days on the police force. It's pretty clear that Scratchy died because he stumbled across some kind of smuggling operation-and that Polo will tie together the three suspects into a tidy little bundle. Nonetheless Kennealy keeps a firm grip on his readers with a smart pace and a light, intelligent tone that's never cute. We're also treated to intriguing lore about investigative procedures in the electronic age, scenic and historic bits and a lively background romance. (Dec.)