The Chartreuse Clue

This suspenseful debut novel, the first of a projected series, introduces a charismatic detective team reminiscent of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Narrator David Goldman, a sarcastic Jewish private eye, is also a trusted assistant to Bishop Francis Regan of the Archdiocese of New York, himself a wheelchair-bound ``frustrated cop'' with an IQ of 220. When a monk wakes up in the apartment of a murdered woman, the two seek to protect him and the Archdiocese's reputation by locating the culprit. Outwitting police inspectors who are itching to arrest the monk, they discover that the wealthy victim was not the only member of her bank-owning family to die mysteriously. Like Wolfe, Regan is an irascible verbal genius based in a brownstone in Manhattan's West 30s. His idiosyncrasies infuriate Goldman who, like Goodwin, is an intensely loyal secretary and chauffeur, baseball and poker fan, and practical man of action who collects the pieces of the puzzle so that his colleague can solve the murder. Boasting more witty one-liners than brain-teasing puzzles, this tightly focused, fast-paced novel surely merits a second installment. (June)