Under the Surface

This formulaic but entertaining contemporary series starter ignores plausibility but has plenty of chemistry. Eye Candy is Eve Webber’s new nightclub, and she hopes that its success will help spur the revitalization of her East Side neighborhood in Lancaster, Pa. Smartly, she goes right to the police when an old acquaintance asks her to launder money through the club, and she agrees to set up an undercover sting. But the cops are concerned that she doesn’t have the mettle to see it through, so they assign hunky Det. Matt Dorchester to get himself hired as Eve’s new bartender, protect her, and see whether she’s got the guts to turn in her onetime friend. Eve promptly pursues Matt, and he finds her hard to resist, but he attempts to maintain a professional distance—until he doesn’t, of course. Calhoun hardly breaks new ground with the setup—a terse and closed-off undercover cop and a spunky heroine who’s upset by his lies and evasions—but the brisk plot and development of side characters (who will presumably participate in upcoming episodes) are entirely satisfying. [em]Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary. (May) [/em]