A Brand X Murder: A ""Fitz"" Fitzgerald Mystery

Though it's a light-toned and lithe crime caper, the first Fitz Fitzgerald tale in 10 years (after A Suitcase in Berlin, 1989) is peopled with stereotypical characters. Before he was knifed to death, Bobo Watson tickled the ivories at Elaine's, the famous New York restaurant. Newspaperman Fitz was a friend of Bobo's, so he tries to get the story more coverage in his paper, the New York Daily Press. Instead, Fitz's blustering boss, Ironhead, sends him to write a soft news story about a parade of 35 famous ships, including models of the Nina and the Pinta, heading up the Hudson River. Not long after Bobo's death, his longtime girlfriend, Ellie, is also murdered. Their apartment has been ransacked, and Bobo's leftover clothes have been sliced open. Two Chinese men, one tall, one short, are soon after Fitz and Kathleen, Ellie's twin sister, who's in from Michigan. Car chases, bodies falling into rivers, threats and offers of money follow. Somehow all the mayhem centers around a valuable gold coin, the Phoenix. Did Bobo have it? Where is it now? Though set in contemporary New York, Flynn's novel is pervaded with the pulp atmosphere of tough newspaper reporters, nice guys on the edge of poverty, dull cops and barroom glamour. Regrettably, the period feel extends to the anachronistic depiction of the Chinese, who are either thuggish or coldly polite and secretive. Still, the pacing is electric from start to finish, the romance never interferes with the action and Fitz remains a pleasure, both dogged and droll. (Dec.)