Neon Dancers

Pulitzer-winning reporter Palmer Kingston works for the Marlinsport, Fla., Tribune ; his tenant and lover, Alice Jane (A.J.) Egan, writes for a competing paper. As in the pair's first adventure, Neon Flamingo , the line between career and personal life shifts constantly. When hotshot U.S. Attorney Ken Trewaster, boyhood nemesis of Palmer, jails the town's longtime mayor as the perpetrator of a real estate scam, Palmer must go into direct competition with A.J., who's been digging up dirt on the same scam. There are more arrests, a suicide (or is it?) and a murder. Palmer and A.J. are separately threatened as they turn over lots of rocks, but Palmer, a local, uncovers a generation-old deception that leads to another act of violence. Despite an unsurprising denouement and characters who aren't as tough as the authors would have us believe, this novel is still neatly done, especially in its depiction of tension between local reporters and corporate media headquarters. (Dec.)