TO AN EASY GRAVE

Who brutally murdered Sean Denby, star quarterback for the Toronto Metros? That's the debut question for narrator-hero Richard Cane, a young Canadian journalist who knew Denby back in college--and who argues (not very convincingly) that unmasking the killer will somehow exorcise his grief over the recent death (in a carcrash) of his beloved heiress-wife. Using his double-status as reporter and rich socialite (by marriage), Cane chats with some of the prime suspects: the team's owner, whose wife may have been having an affair with Denby; a rival quarterback, secretly gay, who turns violent when Cane gets too nosy; a big-time gambler who may have been Denby's rival in romance. Cane also interviews Denby's gorgeous ex-wife: very soon she's his adoring bedmate/ sidekick. And after two more murders and lots of roughing up for Cane, the impulsive sleuth winds up in a near-fatal confrontation with the ruthless killer--whose motives and methods suffer from both predictability and implausibility. Still, despite a plot which belabors a few melodramatic secrets, this is another promising arrival from Canada: appealing hero, briskly ironic narration, serviceable action, and gritty football backgrounds (far superior to those in Tarkenton & Resnicow's recent Murder at the Superbowl).