THE SIDEWALK HILTON
by Bruce Cook
LA detective Chico Cervantes's fourth case seems to have been written by two ill-matched collaborators. The first one lays on the complications with a generous hand when Chico, who's been hired to find Chicago securities trader Benjamin Sterling, instead finds a man who isn't Sterling dead in his hotel room. Sterling finally returns from a three-day vacation among Santa Monica's homeless in company with wiseguy tour guide Julio Alviero, bubbling with plans to market a new fishing reel back home. On the domestic front, Chico's former lover Alicia Ramirez (Death as a Career Move, 1992), now starring in the hit TV series Lupe, is threatened with blackmailers whom her producer wants unwilling Chico to get off her back—triggering a full-blown identity crisis for Chico. While Chico's tangling with Hollywood types, Sterling, with Julio in tow, takes off for Chicago, where the other, no-nonsense collaborator takes over, killing off Sterling, calling Chico back on the case to save Julio, and wrapping up every subplot in record time. The exposition is attractively lightweight, but that second author works quick and dirty. Too many Cooks....