WRITE ME A LETTER

Determinedly offbeat second hardcover adventure (Angels in Heaven, 1992) for geekishly tall San Fernanado Valley p.i. Vic Daniel and his part-time operatives—Sara (the punk poet), Willing Boy (her movie star boyfriend), and Benny (the scam artist). The two main cases here involve them in an Israeli hunt for aging Nazis—which turns into a bloodbath in a northern California Chinese community—and in a trek to Montreal to find William Gince, who supposedly welshed on Fats the loan shark and is now trying to outrun his goons. A subsidiary case for Daniel tackles repeated B&E's at Mobile Home Park. Throughout, there are such diversions as a longish, sophomoric poem from Daniel; riddles sprung on Daniel (some explained, some not); cutesy direct addresses to the reader; and an irritatingly mannered prose style that occasionally settles on a witty turn of phrase. Not as amusing or original as Angels, and the relentlessly peppy tone and wisecracks will lose readers fast.