APPEARANCE OF EVIL

Upscale San Marino, California, is perfectly safe, of course- -as everyone rushes to assure visiting art-restorer Andrea Perkins (The Balmoral Nude, 1990)—and surely the dead body of the naked alcoholic found on the premises of the Huntington museum was not the work of a resident. But Detectives Lopez (a macho Latino) and Robeson (a stickler-for-protocol black woman) investigate anyhow and soon put a name to the deceased: Bryan Anderson—who, years before, had romanced Andrea's hostess Georgene, then married and been divorced by her sister Sarah. When confronted by the detectives, Sarah confesses to killing him. But did she, or is she lying to protect her son, whom she suspects may have done the deed? Andrea befriends the terrified young boy—a gifted artist, who, it turns out, was not the murderer but merely an eyewitness to it- -before a wrap-up that comes just in time for Andrea and her boyfriend, Italian cop Aldo Balzani, to spend some nights together. Andrea has too little to do here, and the silly and unconvincing Lopez and Robeson too much. Sluggish and disappointing after Balmoral.