Dead Beat and Deadly

In the third Charlie Plato mystery (after Dead Men Don't Dance, 1997), the gangly, irrepressibly curious part-owner of a country/western bar called CHAPS outside San Francisco will please fans of frothy, breathless fare, but not many others. Charlie has organized a self-defense course to be taught in the bar. Filipina Estrella Stockton stands out among the students because of the seriousness with which she takes the class--a seriousness that might have something to do with the bruises on her arm. Sure enough, Estrella is murdered, and Charlie finds herself on the trail for clues, helped by her quirky sidekicks and business partners: TV idol Zack Hunter; Savanna Seabrook (described as ""an African-American version of Dolly Parton""); and Angel Cervantes, a muscle-bound mensch with a precarious love life. Estrella turns out to have been a the mail-order bride (ordered over the World Wide Web) of Thane Stockton, who claims that she was ruining his life by running up bills and beating him up. She even killed his dog. To clear himself, Thane asks Zack and Charlie to find the real killer. The malodorous but congenial homeless man who discovered Estrella's body has some interesting information for Charlie, as does a gay bank guard named Domingo Romero. Throughout, Charlie's narration is breezy to a fault as she whispers silly asides and parades a lineup of one-dimensional characters before readers whose eyes may glaze. (Aug.) FYI: Kensington will simultaneously publish the mass market edition of Dead Men Don't Dance.