Everything You Have is Mine

Lauren Laurano, Manhattan PI and former FBI agent, is 40ish, feisty, quick-witted and gay. In her engaging debut she solves a complicated case that begins with the rape and subsequent murder of a young woman named Lake Huron, who ran a computer dating service. To find out if Lake's rapist was also her murderer, Lauren must untangle the victim's knotted family ties and determine why her relatives all lie about their relationships to one another. The threat to Lauren, announced in an attack on her in her office, sparks anxiety and anger in psychotherapist Kip Adams, Lauren's lover of more than a decade, with whom she shares a Greenwich Village brownstone. Scoppettone ( Some Unknown Person ) evokes palpable Village scenes as Lauren's search takes her back to the unbridled '60s, when a fatal legacy of jealousy and deception was spawned. After another murder, the unmasking of several false identities, the mastering of basic PC technology and tense confrontations with Kip, Lauren sets herself up as a decoy to capture rapist and murderer. A lively pace, convincing characterization (Lauren, Kip and their circle of mostly gay friends are especially clearly drawn), colorful scene setting and sensitive observations about complications among families ordinary and unusual far outweigh the overwrought elements of the plot; readers will want to follow Lauren on her next case. (Apr.)