Trade-Off

Delilah West is a spunky California PI who calls for, and sustains, comparison to Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone. Hired by a wealthy Orange County lighting manufacturer to find his runaway teenage daughter, Delilah smells something putrid coming from the house next door. It's the battered remains of a woman, not the daughter, but a friend and neighbor who was also more than friendly with the missing girl's deadbeat boyfriend, who's also AWOL. The murder and the missing persons don't come together until Delilah, fired by her first employer and deciding to work for the murdered woman's husband, finds herself targeted by a truck in an isolated parking lot. Her discovery that drugs may link those missing and murdered also raises a prime crop of grungy young suspects. At the same time, Delilah works hard to resist the advances of a handsome local land developer and friend of her deceased husband. The resolution may be slightly too slick but the neatness fits the brisk characterization and smooth plotting. (June)