WHOLE LOTTA TROUBLE

When three young female New York editors come up with a sassy scheme to publicly expose a notoriously womanizing literary agent, little do they imagine he'll end up not just naked (and tied up in S/M gear) but dead. All do, however, have motives for murder: the smarmy fellow has personally humiliated successful Felicia Redmon, professionally backstabbed not-so-successful Tallie Blankenship and plagiarized the plot of a book that means the world to ambitious Jan Glass. So confessing that they were the last to see their tormentor alive is likely to make them prime suspects, even in the eyes of Tallie's protective new cop boyfriend. But if they stay silent, they may wind up being the real murderer's next victims. While whodunit isn't revealed till the book's surprise ending, the suspense isn't the kind that kills you. As is typical of Bond's books (Party Crashers, etc.), the overall tone is deliciously frothy, and small comedic details abound: high-powered Felicia is a secret super housewife who cleans, cooks and lies about it, and Jan has changed her name from plain "Jane" to appear more glamorously French. And though romance is not the book's main focus, there's enough love between the laughs to keep relationship-minded readers happy. Agent, Kimberly Whalen. (Oct.)