DEADLY ERRAND

First-novelist Green introduces 30-ish nurse Kate Kinsella, whose ambition is to be a detective specializing in medical- background cases. Encouraged by her office landlord, Humbert Humberstone, who runs the funeral parlor on the ground floor of the building, Kate takes on her first client—the aunt of Jacky Byfield, a nurse stabbed to death while running an errand at seedy St. Dymphna's Hospital. Jacky was young, religious, and apparently led a blameless life, but Kate, who takes a job at St. Dymphna's in her search for leads, finds that Jacky had a small fortune in a London bank, and a lover—Mich O'Dowd, a security guard at the hospital. There are more murders and lots of artificially pumped-up suspense before a clumsy reconstruction of the killing leads Kate to a confrontation—awkward and unconvincing—with the killer. Despite its limp-along narrative and a clutch of downbeat characters (who take the edge off Kate's cheerfully amateurish efforts), there's talent here that may be better honed in future outings.