Snowball

Less-than-polished prose and references to unconnected issues vitiate the effects of Sangster's new mystery. Set in the Hollywood film colony, the story features James Reed, formerly of Scotland Yard and ex-husband of Katherine Long, movie star. Engaged to financier Peter Manheim, Katherine asks James to stop her daughter Caroline from using drugs, possibly alienating Manheim. James discovers that his onetime, amoral stepdaughter and her lover have been selling drugs to people at Katherine's studio, which is owned by her fiance. When Caroline skips with $2 million stolen from cocaine dealers, the detective searches for her, thereby putting his own life in jeopardy. What he learns about scandalous operations is suppressed in a phoney public-relations scheme that Katherine and Manheim invent, but James has a plan for blowing the cover-up sky high. Sangster fails to develop his story's potential suspense, largely because he interjects undeveloped leads and irrelevant events that diffuse rather than focus the dramatic momentum. (October 31)