THE PAYOFF

International hybrid: a solid, mildly witty mock-up of a Ross Macdonald chaser, written and set in Italy, translated--apparently--in England (lots of ""blokes"" and such). The Lew-Archerish narrator is Sass lovine, who's hired by an aged shady tycoon to track down the usual runaway daughter (she has some hot-stuff papers on her), the trail leading immediately to two dead bodies: the tycoon's youngish wife and the gigolo who was servicing both wife and daughter. A lot more bodies are bound to crop up as Sasa continues to hound the elusive daughter, resists the verbal and/or violent attention of a rival godfather, deals with his own messy love-life, and finally fingers the ""least likely"" culprit. Macdonald and MacDonald don't have to worry about Veraldi, but their fans may settle for this spaghetti imitation (thin and twisty) while waiting for the real McCoys to re-surface.