Set to Kill: A Mystery Novel

In his first mystery, Marx, son of the famous comedian and author of My Life with Groucho , offers a mean-spirited, unfunny, ill-characterized and improbable Tinseltown tale. Washed-up Hollywood scriptwriter Gabe Steel, faced with hard times and an apparent industry boycott on writers pushing 40, trades in his computer for a tennis racquet and a paid gig as manager at a swank Beverly Hills sports club whose members pay $40,000 in annual dues. But his carefree life is soon interrupted by a spate of wallet-stealings in the locker room and the sudden death of Danny, the locker-room attendant. Gabe soon gets the police on his case, a sound beating for his troubles, and Jenny, the front-desk attendant, as his willing girl Friday when he hits the trail of the thief and killer. Not so much a narrative as a wayward collection of unlikely developments, capped by an even less credible conclusion, this is a dismal tale with no one whom readers can care for in its callous, misogynistic cast of characters. (Feb.)