Bad Manners

Set in the modern-day West and drawing on elements of wealth, lechery and homicide, this diverting debut is a who's-sleeping-with-whom whodunit of a thriller centering around a dead Wyoming newspaperman. After an ill-fated affair with a California judge, ex-police detective Lilly Bennett, 45, moves back to her hometown of Roundup, Wyo. Her cop instincts barely have time to rest; during a lavish soiree, someone takes a shotgun to Roundup Morning News owner Walter Butterfield. Was it his wife? One of her lovers? Walter's mistress, a transsexual rodeo rider? Or one of his daughters, drug-addict Christine or aspiring publisher Ellen? Lilly hated Walter, but she can't resist a case and is appointed a U.S. marshall to aid in legal surveillance of the Butterfield ranch. Amid interrogations and investigations, Lilly always holds herself in high regard (``I dressed with particular care in my old `Reagan Red' Chanel suit.... I had put myself together quite superbly''). Kellogg, who controls the tale's raciness by merely alluding to sex nonstop, moves her mystery along smartly, all the way to the final unmask-the-villain cocktail party. Kellogg effectively characterizes the West's rugged beauty along with the equally impressive, writ-large cast members. (Mar.)