Oxford Exit

Vivacious, gutsy historical romance writer Kate Ivory takes on her third mystery (after Death and the Oxford Box), this time investigating the disappearance of a rare book-along with all the computerized catalogue information about it-from the vast Oxford library system. Readers know, well before Kate, that the computer hacker who stole this book and others has also stolen a dead friend's identity and has murdered an American library student at Oxford in the past year. The scene of the killing is the motorway's Oxford exit, which is what the hacker calls the computer technique he uses to steal books. Drawing on her experience at the Bodleian library, Kate meets a number of deftly limned likely suspects, stumbles on a cache of pornography (including a pop-up Kama Sutra) at St. Luke's and discovers a computer-hating dodderer who has been stealing Nancy Drew books from Kennedy House. With a bit of help from manly Detective Sgt. Paul Taylor, with whom she has a love-hate thing, Kate tracks down the book crook, who abducts her and forces her to drive to the Oxford exit. This witty, altogether admirable mystery is loaded with computer-age library lore. (Mar.)