A series of killings of promising artists on the brink of breakthroughs or comebacks raises the spectre of a killer motivated by a desire to keep people he admires from commercial compromise--the obsessive interest in the case of a young fanzine editor makes him an instant suspect. Alex's cop friends Milo and Petra find themselves caught up in making sense of deaths in a number of artistic and academic milieux in which they are fishes out of water and Alex moves as if born to them--as indeed in some ways he is.

This is an older, more battered Alex than in some of the smugger Delaware adventures--his perfect relationship with lover Robin has come to an end and he is having difficulty either accepting that or moving on; he knew two of the victims here, a blues guitarist and an obnoxious punk singer for whom Robin did some work, which brings murder closer to home than he likes it. As always, this is a smart, slightly conventional LA thriller in which the legwork of cops is as important as the insights of their tame genius. --Roz Kaveney