A Real Shot in the Arm

Fed up with household chores and an uncaring husband, English mother Chris Martin, 40, gets a job on the small local paper, trading one form of drudgery for another until she happens on the body of a teacher who appears to have hanged himself, but who really died of a heroin overdose. Chris and wisecracking reporter Pete Schiavo, who soon beds her, uncover blackmail, a crooked real estate deal, bribery, police corruption, a drug connection and the book's sole ingenious idea--an environmentalists' effort to save a wooded area by salting it with an endangered species of tree frog. Although it's possible to empathize with Chris, this Nancy Drew story for grownups is shallow, implausible and full of chatter that neither develops character nor moves the story forward. Nevertheless, the book won the John Creasy memorial award for best first mystery when published in Britain in 1989. (Jan.)