FEMALE OF THE SPECIES

Another cheerful if slightly tedious caper-in-Paris from the sedately cynical Roudybush, who here overlaps two crimes in the lively Paris office of a N.Y. investment bank. While trusted secretary Hortense and her boss (and lover) prepare to skip off with a faked five-million dollar loan, secretary Mardi arranges to have her boss (and lover) kidnapped so that they can pretend to be terrorists and demand an enormous ransom for his return. Things get sticky, however, when Mardi surprises Hortense in the act (xeroxing forgeries), and Hortense has to bludgeon her with the paper-cutter. This is the situation that greets just-arrived new office manager Alex Grenner, so he enlists the husband-and-wife sleuth team of Sym and Abby Gilkerson (the coyest couple since Tommy & Tuppence) to sort it all out. Smoothly slogged.