March Publications

The Death Tripper, a serial killer, is stalking San Francisco at the height of the hippie era in David Daniel's (The Heaven Stone) new mystery, White Rabbit, a vivid, even-handed portrait of that tumultuous time. John Sparrow, a homicide cop, and Amy Cole, a writer for an underground newspaper, mustn't let their initial mutual distrust interfere with their common goal of bringing the killer to bay. (St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $24.95 336p ISBN 0-312-30429-3)

In Tongue Tied: A Donald Strachey Mystery, Richard Stevenson's eighth amusing whodunit to feature his gay Albany, N.Y., PI, Strachey has to figure out who tossed a tear-gas canister into the studio of Jay Plankton (aka "J-Bird''), the first of other, increasingly bizarre attacks on the radio "shock jock" during the period leading up to the 2000 elections. Straight and gay readers will appreciate the author's wry social commentary. (St. Martin's Minotaur, $22.95 224p ISBN 0-312-30974-0)

Manhattan co-op residents will particularly enjoy Gretchen Sprague's Murder in a Heat Wave: A Martha Patterson Mystery, the third entry in this intelligent series (after 2000's Maquette for Murder). When someone shoots to death the head of the co-op board in her Greenwich Village apartment building after the air-conditioning system breaks down, it's up to retired lawyer Patterson to find the culprit. (St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $22.95 224p ISBN 0-312-27662-1)

The stars are right for astrologer Steven Forrest's (The Book of Pluto) mystery debut, Stalking Anubis. Astrologer Plato Mims has to rely on psychological insight as well as the power of the planets to help his pal Sinker Crenshaw when Sinker's new romance takes a deadly turn. (Seven Paws [www.sevenpawspress.com], $12.95 paper 240p ISBN 0-9649113-6-1)