Honolulu Red

Cool, gorgeous, red-headed Rachel Starr, L.A.P.D. detective, is the protagonist of this eventful, fast-moving first novel. Starr wants to catch whoever murdered her partner when the two were investigating a jewelry and drug scam. Discovering Nicholas Snow--professor, connoisseur, art thief--in the act of heisting valuables from a museum, she makes a deal with him. Snow will get immunity if he helps Starr track down the killer Jacob Tong, whose jewelry stores are fronts for fencing stolen gems. The action moves to Honolulu, where Starr poses as a freelance writer and Snow entraps Tong by hiring him to steal an exotic red diamond. Enter bad cop Jim Towers, Starr's middle-aged colleague, who has been providing Tong with Mexican dope. Short of cash, guilty over his lost ideals and infatuated with a kittenish call-girl, Towers offers to betray Starr to Tong's gang. Zimmelman, who won Honolulu Magazine 's prize for fiction, diminishes the effect of her story with a large crew of inessential, distracting characters. (Jan.)