UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Life is good for Munch Mancini. She's clean and sober. She's got a steady paycheck and a steady guy. And her gig at Belair Texaco lets her do the two things she loves most: take apart internal combustion engines and get home in time to pick up her daughter, Asia, from school. So why would she want to mess things up by trying to find out who raped and tortured ex-model Robin Davies, sending the poor woman into total seclusion except for a daily visit from Meals on Wheels? Maybe it's because Robin was so kind to Asia and her second-grade classmates when she choreographed their school play. Maybe it's because Robin's rapist may have committed another, deadlier crime: the electrocution of Diane Bergman, socialite widow and founder of the Bergman Cancer Center, who had befriended Munch when things weren't so rosy. Maybe it's because the chief investigator on the Bergman murder, Mace St. John, makes Munch's engine throb in a way her straight-arrow boyfriend Garret Dimond just doesn't. Or maybe it's because in the bad old days, Munch herself was more than once the victim of a guy who just wouldn't take no for an answer. Whatever the reason, Munch is putting it all on the line to stop a sadist who knows where she lives, knows where she works, and has her whole world—including Asia—in the center of his scope.

Munch (Unwanted Company, 2000, etc.) talks tough and hangs tougher in this tightly wound tale of cat and mouse.