Just for the Summer

When Mary Liz Scott was 12, she wanted to be a detective. Now 33, retired from a successful career as a Chicago investment banker, she's determined to lose 10 pounds and gain back the decade she lost as a workaholic. Van Wormer (Jury Duty) sets this romantic suspense story in tony East Hampton, Long Island. Mary Liz, spending the summer at the home of her wealthy godmother, Nancy Hoffman, is considering what to do with the rest of her life. But she also gets to play detective in untangling the financial mess left by the accidental (or was it?) death of Nancy's husband, Alfred, a film producer. Her lust for truth leads her into a morass of pornography, international money-laundering, child-molestation and startling revelations about her parents' marriage. Lust also leads her into the clutches of another summer visitor, handsome Sky Preston, who we know from the first kiss can't be just the schoolteacher and golf ringer he claims to be. Alas, the plot is often confusing rather than complex. Van Wormer has to keep reidentifying the many characters, and cameos by real-life beautiful people, from Kim Bassinger to Kurt Vonnegut, add more clutter than glitter to a novel that goes tepid when it should sizzle. Author tour. (June)