Time Lapse: An Anna Peters Mystery

This crisp, cinematic mystery begins with the drowning death of matinee idol and champion swimmer Henry Brook while he is filming a much-publicized movie on an estate in upstate New York. Independence Mutual, issuers of a multimillion-dollar policy on the actor's life, suspect (read: hope) the death was suicide and hire PI and narrator Anna Peters to investigate how Brook met his end. Peters is disillusioned to discover that her favorite actor was a middle-aged playboy with an underage girlfriend and that his tenuous financial situation was held together by an ex-wife whom he insulted at every turn. Learning that Brook lived with both women, Peters speculates that he was too happy to have killed himself. She also learns that both women had motive and opportunity for murder. After a near-fatal attack on the estate manager who may have witnessed Brook's death and a vicious attack on Peters herself, the quick-witted PI, introduced in Law's Edgar-nominated The Big Payoff , uncovers more suspects and the means by which Brook was killed. The question of whether he was a victim of his own vanity or the object of a perfect homicide is resolved in a neat twist. Sophisticated and believable entertainment. (Aug.)