Liar's Poker: A Harry Garnish Mystery

Short on plot, the fourth Harry Garnish mystery (after Murder Among Friends ) tries too hard to be long on moxie. Garrulous Harry, who works at former nun Bridget O'Toole's Chicago detective agency, visits the Sethian Center in South Bend, Ind., to investigate its director, Father Steven Lee. The agency's client, Barry Browder, wants to know why his wife Nancy has been making huge contributions to the Center. In South Bend, Harry, who is pushing 50, is picked up by Lisa, a 20-something woman with whom he has a night of torrid sex. Returning to Chicago, he admits he found out nothing--in fact, he liked Lee, who knew from the outset that Harry was there to check him out. Then Nancy Browder is discovered comatose in a motel room with a dead college student named Billy, and her daughter Andrea turns out to be the mysterious Lisa . Did Nancy and Billy try to kill themselves? What part did the Sethians and/or Lisa play? Harry's self-destructive behavior and self-pity over his dissolving relationship with live-in girlfriend Janie grow boring and depressing long before he finds the answers to these questions. ( June )