A Killing in Venture Capital

The passions generated by the huge potential profits of venture-capital investment form the backdrop of this tale of corporate and criminal intrigue. Drew Lispenard, a partner in Boston's Blackstone Associates, which specializes in financing start-ups, rejects an opportunity to invest in Dynagen, a biotech firm working on a cure for multiple sclerosis. He is drawn into the company's affairs, however, when its chief financial officer David Benoit (who is also the lover of Drew's gay cousin Pen Mauran) disappears from a sailboat off the coast of Maine. With the aid of Nanda West, a young associate from a competing firm which had financed Dynagen, Drew and Pen investigate, finding that David's death (his body is finally discovered) is tied to the Dynagen's announcement of an MS cure and a plan to go public with a stock offering. Sensitive handling of both heterosexual and homosexual love affairs and a vivid depiction of the venture-capital world make Logan's second mystery ( Deathampton Summer ) a lively read. ( June )