Zen and the City of Angels

Tough chick PI Zen Moses may have lost a lung to cancer, but her heart is as big as greater L.A. So when her lawyer and drinking buddy Jim Gray asks her to locate an unnamed client's missing dog as a ""favor,"" she agrees, despite certain dark suspicions. Sure enough, pursuit of the pet leads Zen right into a trap: as she cases a famous animal trainer's home, she spies Jim being tortured by her old nemesis, shady sports agent Eddie Cooke, whose henchmen suddenly shoot her up with a drug. When she comes to, she discovers a bludgeoned, faceless body beside her--quite possibly Eddie's. The LAPD rushes to accuse Zen of the murder, but before they can arrest her, her new pal Sherrie Sangar kidnaps her at gunpoint, then tries to get the LAPD to shoot them both. Despite her many travails, it's hard to connect with Zen, with her unfathomable loyalty to dangerous friends and her flat, monotonous narrative voice. (On the climactic car chase: ""We raced onward though the deserted streets of west Los Angeles. Bobo knew the city better and the Range Rover had the bigger engine. It was only a matter of time before we put enough space between us and them. We finally lost them down a side street, where he cut the lights and came to a stop."") Various drab characters drift in and out of the aimless plot, which labors to a big finish involving Nigerian drug lords, a gun-toting gossip columnist and an apocalyptic fire. Cosin attempts to build on the success of the earlier Zen and the Art of Murder, but this sequel runs out of gas on the freeway. Author tour. (Nov.)