Full Blown Rage

Ex-newspaperman and coauthor of The Verdict, Gross introduces New York police detective Maggie Van Zandt in this workmanlike mystery. When Maggie's friend Cissy Stone commits suicide after learning that she has AIDS, Maggie tries to find out how her friend became infected, delving into Cissy's private life while juggling her cases and resisting pressure from her superiors to arrest the obvious suspect in a high-profile murder of a Random House employee. Meanwhile, Eric Miller, the man responsible for infecting Cissy, continues to wreak a twisted revenge for having accidentally contracted the disease: infecting others, including co-workers at the Gotham Medical Lab. The story builds to a tense climax that pulls together the threads of the plot, but Gross fails to make Miller's rage believable. He has more success with his lead character as Maggie, reading her friend Cissy's diaries, confronts the loneliness of big-city living even as she begins a promising romance with an ex-reporter turned bookstore owner. The pace, while leisurely, never flags, and Gross establishes credible relationships in a vivid New York setting, holding promise for future Maggie Van Zandt stories. Literary Guild selection. (Feb.)