Death Hits the Fan (Hc)

A bookstore reading in a Marin County, Calif., independent bookstore turns fatal when one of the writers dies of poisoning in the talky ninth Kate Jasper tale (after 1997's A Cry for Self-Help). Kate and her fiance, restaurateur Wayne, are in the audience, having fled their skunk-infested house and troublesome human houseguest. Three authors--working in mystery and science fiction--have been invited to participate in the reading. S.X. Greenfree, the best known of the three, puts on a bracelet left at her place at the table and almost immediately keels over dead, leaving the focus of suspicion trained on the audience. Wayne and other curious attendees talk to everyone who was present, including a rare book dealer, the store owner and his teenage son and a larcenous employee. When the employee is found dead in the store's back room in what might be an accident, Kate and Wayne step up their investigation. Based on the premise that genre writers have kooky personalities, this disjointed story is long on pointless dialogue and short on action. (Apr.)