JUST DESSERTS

Newcomer Savannah Reid, a Georgia peach transplanted to the San Carmelita Police Department, isn't fat; she's Junoesque. But her extra 30 pounds give the police chief the excuse to fire her when she identifies the chief's lover, Councilwoman Beverly Winston, as the leading suspect in her husband Jonathan's shotgun murder. Looks like a dead end for Savannah—until the angry, determined councilwoman turns around and hires her to run an independent investigation into the murder. Aided by her faithful former partner, Dirk Coulter, and Jonathan's gorgeous bodyguard, Ryan Stone, Savannah sees her way not only to solving the murder- -all right, there's a second killing and a pretty obvious suspect—but to rescuing her starry-eyed kid sister (Atlanta, of course) from one Big Bad Wolf of a photographer. Nothing new here, and most of the promising developments in this first of a series peter out disappointingly. But the pseudonymous McKevett's clean, unpretentious style keeps everything moving along smartly, and her sweet-toothed heroine could strike a chord among readers who find V.I. a bit of a stretch.