by Faye Kellerman
The showgirl who turns up dead in the Las Vegas desert wasn't just murdered, she was mauled. But it's not only her missing eye or the shredded skin on the left side of her body that sets police detective Romulus Poe on edge. It's the fact that fellow detective Steve Jensen—a compulsive philanderer wed to Poe's troubled childhood sweetheart Alison—seems to know more than he's saying about the victim.
Faye Kellerman, who has racked up a string of bestselling thrillers featuring the crime-solving team of LAPD detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, has a gift for creating quirky, complicated characters. And Poe, a noble eccentric who lives in a desert hut without plumbing or electricity when not sharing the bed of forensic pathologist Rukmani Kalil, could make a fine new series hero. But Moon Music's credibility-straining plot—overstuffed with tales of Native American mysticism, fallout from the atomic bomb tests of the 1950s and even werewolves—doesn't give him much of a chance. (Morrow, $25.50)
Bottom Line: It's no howler, but Kellerman can do better
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