Take It Off, Take It All Off!

Novelist and biographer Ritz ( Passion Flowers ; Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye ) sets his latest hardboiled mystery in New York City and environs shortly after V-E Day in 1945. Rhonda Silverstar (nee Silverstern), the Brooklyn-born stripper currently headlining at Plotsky's Burlesque in Newark, N.J., is appalled when Tush, one of her back-up girls, is brutally murdered and the police don't seem to care. Rhonda sets out to investigate the murder herself, but as she finds out more about Tush's past, more mysteries unfold. The daughter of Ohioan fundamentalist Christians, Tush became a jazz singer and may or may not have had a lesbian affair with close friend and mentor Billie Holiday. She also slept with an awful lot of men, possibly including Rhonda's boyfriend Bull. From a veritable rogue's gallery of suspects, the sleuthing stripper uncovers an unexpected killer, which leads to a farfetched, action-packed ending. Aggressive, foul-mouthed and unapologetic about her interest in sex, Rhonda is an unusual, mostly appealing heroine, especially in her post-war setting. Her raunchy, sometimes ugly tale, despite its comic turns, is not for the faint of heart. (July)