Postcard from Hell

New Orleans' Andy Derain (first seen in Bad Girl Blues), the photographer who fled from the New York City fashion scene, moves through a tale whose ragged, unresolved plot is nearly saved by rich atmosphere. When a gangster's son is killed, Andy takes some shots of the crime scene to sell to the tabloids. Instead of the small fortune he hoped for, Andy earns the wrath of the victim's father, Crayfish Joe Coquin. At the same time, Astrid Montebello, a onetime model turned fashion designer, sends him a postcard telling him of problems she's having in the Cayman Islands. After she disappears, Andy (partly to escape the claws of Crayfish Joe) decides to investigate and ends up pitted against some very cold-blooded drug dealers. Personal--as well as sleuthing--questions dog Andy: Should he stay with girlfriend Bleusette Lescault, the strikingly beautiful restaurateur and ex-hooker? Or should he pursue the exquisite Astrid? And what about Glory, the beautiful pilot? All this nubility lends an air of male fantasy to this tale, in which only Bleusette and the amiably corrupt New Orleans are entirely convincing. (July)