Still mooning over Michael Jamieson, the boyfriend whose defection sent her around the bend into drugs, drug rehab, and her...

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BUCK NAKED

Still mooning over Michael Jamieson, the boyfriend whose defection sent her around the bend into drugs, drug rehab, and her psychiatrist mother's dubiously comforting arms, L.A. private eye Demeter (Dutch) O'Brien signs on for what she thinks will be a restful change of pace--script consultant to Buck Stevens's hit TV series Stone, Private Eye. But hours after Buck's TV daughter and real-life lover Amy Westin tosses her costar out of her unsanctified bed and fends off his ham-handed attempt to fire her, she's dead, her severed head sent to Dutch with a note warning, ""You're next."" Who on earth could the killer be? Though she dutifully provides a second corpse, TV writer/producer Burditt (Triplets, etc., not reviewed) is much more interested in Dutch's tiffs with her mother, her tearful reunion with Michael, and her pursuit by loutish Buck, a wishful camera operator, the cop on the case, and another woman--anything other than the mystery. It's hard to dislike no-nonsense Dutch (her muttered prayer after an earthquake: ""Hey, stop with the acts of God already. Who needs this shit? Amen.""), but she's working a much more crowded corner of Shamusville than she knows. Warmed-over mystery intercut with scenes that feel like reruns the first time you read them. Invincibly ordinary stuff.

Pub Date: May 1, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996

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