A Question of Preference: A Teal Stewart Mystery

Lamb's heroine Teal Stewart makes a strong move to hardcover with her second appearance (after Questionable Behavior). Teal, a CPA called ``a financial Sherlock Holmes'' by the local Boston Globe, is vying for partnership in her accounting firm when her best friend asks for help. Nancy Vanderburg-tall, blonde and America's foremost living painter of family and societal conventions-has been receiving ominous threats, e.g., the words ``punishment follows Adultery death follows perversion'' scrawled across an article about her in a glossy magazine. Then Nancy is killed by a car when out jogging with her estranged husband, publicist Michael Britton. Assorted suspects are found in the tangled skein of Nancy's life: Michael, a former Golden Gloves contender and reader of mercenary magazines; Carole, Nancy's sister and agent; Felicia Barrette, gallery owner and Nancy's career-long champion and also Michael's lover; and Nancy's new lover, whose identity she did not disclose to Teal. The three-dimensional supporting cast, including an overeating criminal attorney and a retirement-age hit man, and the sensually depicted Massachusetts and Baja California backdrops add to the pleasures of this absorbing page-turner. (Oct.)