THE HABITS OF A LIFETIME

Superannuated 60's survivor David Robbins, now tending sheep on some mountain, is called back to L.A. when his ex-wife, photographer Andrea Wild, is murdered and her second husband, Nick Sawyer, vanishes with her two kids—his own and Dave's. Dave starts out convinced that Nick, a former rock star whose name keeps the case in the papers, is innocent, but his daisy-chain of questions—to family friends, drug connections, and old (actually very young) girlfriends—paints a picture of big-time cocaine, drug smuggling, businesslike whoring, and unkosher grants to a private medical foundation that all make it hard to believe in Nick, and that make Dave wonder about himself too. Feinsod (author of the nonfictional Awake in a Nightmare, 1981) seems to be aiming for an AIDS-themed remake of The Long Goodbye in his first novel. The result is uninspired but heartfelt.