Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca?

The plot of this sweaty adventure, Ford's fine first effort, is mostly a vehicle for its hero, a wisecracking PI who may be living in the suave Seattle of the 1990s but whose spirit harks back to the 1930s and '40s when men were men, women were dames and coffee was joe. Leo Waterman is hired by mobster Tim Flood to look after his granddaughter, who has fallen in with an extremist environmental group that's on a collision course with the law. When Waterman, whose mission is to keep the sultry Caroline out of harm's way, inadvertently witnesses the apparent murder of one of her pals, he becomes the main suspect. In an improbable but appealing twist, he calls upon his band of street people, met during his hard-drinking days, to carry out surveillance while he lies low. Finely shaded characterization is not Ford's strength, particularly in his portrayals of women, but in general his descriptions are apt and funny. The big finish strains credibility but will satisfy whose who like good to triumph loudly over evil. (May)