A Swell Style of Murder

Excessive violence, steamy sex and the musings of disturbed minds are featured in Santini's novel, which hovers between a baroque mystery and a parody of thrillers. Rick Ramsey is the WASP spouse of gorgeous Rosie, daughter of the powerful Caesares of New York City's chic SoHo district. When Rick stumbles on a severed hand on the street, Rosie forces him to join her in solving the crime, with expectations of collaborating on a bestseller. The police find another hand and the bodies from which they both have been cut, apparently evidence of Mafia vengeance on a faithless wife and her lover. Disregarding warnings about the consequences of competing with the police, and inviting lethal attention from the gangsters, Rosie insists on thrusting herselfand terrified Rickinto the subterranean affairs of the capo and his henchmen. Mixed into the hodge-podge plot are roles played by lust-maddened women, a chi-chi exhibit with ""found'' art and a robot that sounds an alarm when the killer traps Rosie. January 14