False Profit

When sleazy, cocaine-tooting investment broker Jack Burns applies to corporate investigator Paul Marston for protection, then turns up parboiled in his Malibu hot tub, it's up to Marston and his smoldering junior partner (and sometime lover) kung-fu-fighting Angela Cantini, to track down the killer. No sooner does $5 million in client investments disappear than Marston is framed for the murder of the prostitute he met at Burns's Malibu beach house. While Paul puzzles his way out of prison, Angela goes abroad to trail femme fatale Nina Gamine through the lesbian bars of Paris and discover whether Nina's story about a missing younger brother has anything to do with the dead investment broker and the vanished money. Sordid revelations of false identity, investment fraud, pornography, incest and (more) murder follow quickly as the detectives weave their way through the mansions and hinterlands of funky, smog-choked L.A. Though some may find its style derivative, its humor bordering on corn, this sequel to Eversz's The Bottom Line Is Murder again provides a likable investigating team caught up in a sexy and satisfying puzzle. (Feb.)