Hope Will Answer: An Inspector Nick Trevellyan/Alison Hope Mystery (Us)

Lovers/sleuths Alison Hope and Inspector Nick Trevellyan part company for most of this uneven addition to the series begun with Hope Against Hope . Stylish Alison takes time off from her successful software company in Britain's Hop Valley for an incognito gig in London where she poses as a mousy programmer to unmask a malevolent computer hacker who is destroying an old friend's business. She finds a corpse beside a keyboard and an office full of suspects, including, unbeknownst to her, yet another undercover software spy. Meanwhile, Nick deals with the rape of a 13-year-old girl and a younger policewoman's troubling but tempting romantic attentions, which come at a rocky time in his and Alison's romance. Events severely test them both in a tale that spends as much time exploring their relationship as it does solving the two crimes. Pacing and clarity are a problem as Kelly fuzzily interlaces the crime puzzles with the sleuthing pair's emotional quandaries. (Dec.)