Murder Saves Face: A Reuben Frost Mystery

Retired Wall Street lawyer Reuben Frost explores yuppie life and death in his sixth outing (after Murder for Lunch ). His old law firm, Chase & Ward, calls on him for help when associate Juliana Merriman is murdered at the firm's new offices in the rising but still somewhat dubious Clinton area of Manhattan (aka Hell's Kitchen). The ambitious Merriman had been working on her first big independent case, the merger of a software firm headed by an old friend and a distribution company represented by hotshot but somewhat sleazy investment banker Harvey Rawson, with whom Merriman had quarreled on the last day of her life. As Frost investigates with the aid of Luis Bautista, his homicide detective friend turned lawyer, he uncovers a variety of motives with attendant suspects. Murphy wittily skewers modern business and morality as his urbane sleuth, who has a most engaging encounter with a sophisticated and efficient call girl, neatly apprehends another murderer. (Mar.)