Rotten Lies

Exhibiting admirable follow-through, the authors of A Wicked Slice bring back young golf-pro/sleuth Lee Ofsted in a classic cozy that draws extra appeal from its golf-tour milieu. After a record opening-day round at New Mexico's Cottonwood Creek Country Club, Lee is out front in the Women's Professional Golf League High Desert tournament. But the twinge of tennis elbow that bothered her on the 17th hole flares after she attempts CPR on a man she finds on the course, apparently the victim of a lightning strike. Unable to save Ted Guthrie, the antagonistic president of Cottonwood Creek's board of directors, Lee can't swing a club either. Withdrawing from the tournament, she goes to work with the TV crew covering the tour and is thus on the scene when venerable sports announcer Boyd Marriner dies in the cafeteria. Using her TV role as an investigative cover, Lee probes both deaths, joined in her sleuthing by her boyfriend, Graham Sheldon, a California cop who comes to visit. The pursuit of a killer leads to nighttime danger on the high desert golf course before the game and winning Lee can resolve the puzzles of both the homicides and her heart. (Nov.)