THINNER, BLONDER, WHITER

When they find gentle, wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly Fitz stuffed into the freezer of New York’s Pan American Hotel, Julia Moran’s uncertain world begins tilting toward crash. That Fitz—William Fitzgerald, her brother Corky’s closest friend—has been murdered is clear, but not much else is, including precisely what killed him. Was someone sending a bizarre message to Corky? Was there a convoluted way in which his job as Pan American’s Director of Food and Beverages could have brought Fitz to the wrong place at the wrong time? Grief-stricken Corky, strung out on booze and drugs far too often, is ready to swallow just about any explanation. But soon enough, Julia begins to understand that darker, more dangerous factors might be at work. The revelation that unworldly Fitz knew a secret the incumbent mayor desperately wanted to hide might have gotten him in Dutch with the superheated New York City mayoral campaign. Even worse, Julia’s beloved black knight is about to become her heart-breaking bête noir. Sam Reid, bestselling author of A Native Son Bears Witness and tenured professor at City University, is a towering figure in the black community and in Julia’s life. She’d edited his book beautifully and shared his bed willingly on demand. Now, however, mounting evidence seems to make it clear that (1) Sam’s a cheat and (2) he played a role in Fitz’s death.

Slapdash plotting decks a debut that could have been a contender.