A Very Proper Death

Boston real estate broker Marni Verstak becomes involved in drug-trade violence in this fast-paced and effective mystery debut. An anonymous caller alludes to the death of Marni's young son, Matthew, born after her separation from secret homosexual Anderson Thorpe III. But Matthew is very much alive and hidden with friends so that Marni's domineering former mother-in-law will not try to acquire custody. Then a man renovating a house, owned by Marni and located in the deteriorating, drug-infested Jamaica Plain area, is slain. When Matthew is almost killed in a suspicious automobile accident, Marni determines to inform his father, who now has AIDS, about his existence, but she is thwarted. Then Anderson is found murdered, and Marni is arrested. As she struggles against the tightening coils of disaster, she has the support of two men--police investigator Jake Murphy and Anderson's boyhood friend and heir, flamboyant, slightly sinister Geraint Finnbar. Juniper (the pseudonym of a mainstream novelist) embroils her heroine in a suspenseful and complex plot, which ends with the promise of further terrors, as this volume is the first of a projected trilogy. Mystery Guild alternate. (July)