TWISTED

 Heidi Sinclair's divorced her husband, recorded a hit song, and signed a contract to voice the latest Disney animated film, but her luck runs out when she's stabbed to death in her shower, followed closely by Brett Noble, the eligible San Francisco bachelor whose post-coital doze in her bed is turned into something more bloody and permanent. Central District homicide's superstar, newly promoted Lt. Fleece Turner, starts out interrogating the usual suspects--Heidi's ex, Dawson Sinclair, whose alibi shimmers and vanishes like a desert mirage; Serena Noble, Brett's long-estranged but undivorced wife; and all their heirs and assigns. But a telltale bloodstain (type O-negative) seems to rule out every suspect Fleece and his crew have turned up, leaving only one they haven't been able to find: Heidi's tennis teacher, Troy Barrington. As Fleece and Co. beat the bushes for the elusive Troy, whose list of aliases warns them it could be a long hunt, a slew of stories in the Chronicle and some unusually well-informed street gossip warns them they could be facing a leak in their own department. Will Fleece be able to tear himself from the side of bosomy, predatory dental technician Helena Covington, who demands serious commitment in return for her serious favors, for long enough to plug the leak and nab the killer? Nostalgia buffs put off by this first novel's slapdash writing and slablike characters may want to persist to the ending, where they'll see the return of a trick first popularized by Mickey Spillane half a century ago.