THE DEATH OF A DIFFICULT WOMAN

It isn't enough that Bonnie Indermill, signing on as a temporary assistant to the coordinator of relocation operations for Nutley, Eggers, Rivers, and Davis (NERD), is suddenly catapulted into the hot seat when her boss takes a hike and leaves her holding the moving boxes. Or that her first trip to the law firm's new office on Manhattan's Park Avenue is enlivened by her catching sight of a mysterious stalker who seems to be on the tail of senior litigation partner Kate Hamilton. Or even that a greenhorn mover can't account for the contents of Kate's precious desk drawer, and Bonnie takes the heat. No, the crowning blow comes when Kate is killed, and the police refuse to concentrate on the stalker, who meantime has turned his attention—phone calls, quickie personal visits, uncensored and increasingly accurate drawings of her in the naked arms of head mover Sam Finkelstein—to Bonnie. The cops decide that a much better suspect would be Sam's son Billy, whose delinquent past, weak alibi, and poor relations with the deceased would make him a natural to anybody who hasn't met the other slimy NERDs—the imperious senior partner, the two nervous associates teetering on the edge of partnership, Bonnie's craven new boss—or who isn't being stalked herself by somebody else. Berry (Good Night, Sweet Prince, 1990, etc.) writes like an omnidextrous octopus, dishing the dirt on NERD, following Bonnie's earthy romance, plotting a pristine whodunit, and leavening it all with Bonnie's trademark light patter—though tracking down the killer, stalker or no, never becomes as threatening as moving all those lawyers.