BLOOD ON THE STREET

Headhunter Leslie Wetzon is having an awful week: she and her partner, Xenia Smith, have escalated their bickering; her cop-boyfriend is away;, she has to move from her apartment; and a broker she's just placed in a new firm, Brian Middleton, didn't show up for his new job. He couldn't--he's dead. Whodunit? Leslie, between power brunches and lunches, etc., casts a suspicious eye on Brian's wife (the couple bitterly contested custody of their client list); the alcoholic Penny Ann, a client whom Brian swindled; her missing daughter, whom he seduced; and the psychiatrist to them all--the mellow, sublimely fatuous Dr. Jerry--and his sequined wife Barbie. Leslie is tailed, bashed, and beset all around but saves her biggest fears for her reactions to an eligible dinner date, the distinguished Alton, who just happened to arbitrate a case involving Brian. Not to worry:, the killer's false rÉsumÉ eventually comes to light, and then it's back to business as usual for Leslie. More trendiness and upscale name-dropping. Not to mention dumb plotting.