The Bum's Rush

Seattle PI Leo Waterman continues to deliver on the lively promise of his first appearance in Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? In his third case, following Cast in Stone, Leo stumbles into a battle for the riches of a young pop star, Lukkas Terry, who died of a seemingly accidental heroin overdose. While tracking a missing member of his group of homeless friends, known as ""the boys,"" Leo is given some help from Selena Dunlap, a skid row alcoholic who says she's Lukkas's long-lost mother. Leo checks out her story and believes it, especially when some hoods come looking for her. Who might want to deprive Selena of Lukkas's estate? His manager, music impresario Gregory Conover? Or his spacey girlfriend, Beth Goza, now pregnant with his child? Leo coaxes his homeless pals out of their boozy haze to help him find the answer and trap a killer once again. Leo exhibits just the right mix of grit and wit, surviving two murder attempts and the unpredictable antics of his offbeat pals, whose surveillance work is invisible because, as he observes, society has trained itself to ignore them. Ford demonstrates real skill with Leo and his ""residentially challenged"" cronies in this fast-moving tale, portraying them sympathetically but without sentimentality. (May)