Hush, Money

Femling's second thriller is even more impressive than her widely praised first, Backyard. Set in Southern California, the story is told by insurance adjuster Martha (Moz) Brant, who says she's ``half-Filipino, five-three and fairly assertive.'' The reader finds her fiercely loyal, too, as she risks her life to find out who blew up the yacht Spray , killing its owner, Arnold Tenhagen, and injuring Moz's friends who were aboard an adjacent boat. Questioning the wealthy and prominent Tenhagen family, Moz learns little from Tenhagen's widow, son or daughter, though they seem eager to cooperate. The murder of a worker at the marina and an attempt to kill Moz multiply the shocks that the author supplies in this memorable mystery with its outsized cast of disparate, perfectly realized characters. Mysterious Book Club selection. (Aug.)