Dogtown

Whitney Logan is eight months out of law school at UCLA and owes her landlord $850, so she's not too picky when a well-dressed brunette walks in off the street and offers her $1000 in cash to look for a missing Guatemalan maid. What follows in this promising first novel is a rough-and-tumble mystery-thriller that moves from run-down movie lots to immigrant barrios to Baja Mexico and back. Logan is one tough attorney--her idea of relaxation is dumbbell presses at Gold's Gym--but immigration law is not one of her strengths. Neither is the Los Angeles underclass, so she hires as her guide Lupe, a street-smart hooker in a red mini-dress, and the result is a partnership that transcends their differences, and that is handled with a sense of humor. The West Coast setting is reminiscent of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries, but Whitney Logan is much less genteel. (Apr.)