BITTER BUSINESS

Superior Plating and Specialty Chemicals has been held exclusively by Chicago's Cavanaugh family for three generations, but it won't be for much longernot if Lydia Cavanaugh has her way. CEO Jack Cavanaugh's ditzy youngest daughter suddenly wants to sell her shares in the open market, and her older siblingsheir-apparent Philip, chief financial officer Dagny, unpolished ex-Marine Eugeneare frantic to stop her. How frantic? Well, on their new attorney Kate Millholland's first visit to the corporate offices to look over the operation, she practically trips over the body of Dagny's secretary, Cecilia Dobson. But this calamity is only a prelude to the real action, a second suspicious death that will shake the company to its foundationsand provide a nifty and nefarious new use for some of Superior Plating's most storied chemicals. In her first hardcover, Hartzmark has a fine time putting the wildly dysfunctional Cavanaughs through their paces, though corporate specialist Kate, who never wanted these puling infants as clients anyhow, is right in pointing out that as a criminal investigator, she's a great deal-maker. Despite the multiple traumas of the anything-for-a-wound Cavanaughs, Kate's appealing mix of savvy and sentiment make this a friendly, lively exposÇ.