A Case of Lone Star

Semiretired country music star, amateur sleuth Kinky Friedman is the star of his own show in this follow-up to Greenwich Killing Time. The Lone Star Cafe, on the edge of Greenwich Village, is East Coast mecca for country-and-western musicians and fans. Although business improves after three well-known stars are killed, management experiences some difficulty booking new acts. Asked by both the owner and club manager to step in, Kinky focuses on a letter containing Hank Williams lyrics, which each victim received before his final appearance. Hard-drinking, cigar-smoking Kinky comes up with a list of suspects, including a cocaine-dealing lawyer, the author of a just-published Williams' biography and a luscious blond photographer from England. But to get his man in the end, Kinky must carefully examine Hank Williams's last sad tour and then get back on stage himself. Though a little thin on plot, with a photographic red herring that won't fool those who know what numbers look like printed backwards, the second Kinky Friedman mystery offers insider dope on country music and the Lone Star and is filled with rough-edged, somehow agreeable Village atmosphere. (August 26)