Silk Lady

There are more rumors about celebrities in this commercial novel than in a Hollywood tabloid, but none of them are as outrageous as what the characters disclose about themselves and each other, and the low-down and dirty of Davis's fictitious jet-set is by far the book's most entertaining aspect. When the story of Fred Masters's and Miranda Jay's double suicide is splashed across the nation's front pages, Lou Salerno, a detective with the LAPD, is struck by certain similarities the case bears to one in his own district. He heads for New York, believing he can prove that the newspaper tycoon and his svelte mistress were murdered. As Salerno discovers Miranda's involvement with the founder of an aerospace firm, he also uncovers evidence of a conspiracy among the company stockholders to install untested microchips in the computers of the nation's defense system. Equally shocking is the revelation that Miranda was the star of an elite bondage and domination club. Though unabashedly erotic, the sex scenes are subtly drawn, and Davis's (The Pretenders probing of Miranda's psyche provides an unusual slant on the power plays of the rich. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; author tour. (May 19)