GRIZZLY TRAIL

Melinda Pink (Last Chance Country), middle-aged mountaineer/sleuth, now visits her exotic friend Maggie Seale in Prosper, Montana (pop. 67), where Maggie works as a ranchhand when not astonishing the locals with Paris gowns. Then, however, just as the fall cattle roundup is getting underway, violence interrupts the Wild West festivities--in the form of the bear-mauled body of self-professed journalist Irving Tye. Meanwhile, too, Pink is getting nasty vibes having to do with illegal bear-killing and the pelt trade as she gets to know the locals: Maggie's boss Sim Logan; his seedy neighbors the Farrells, with their ratty dude ranch; led and Mae Trotter, who have a new $1000 stove in their hovel. And the gruesome death of Jed Trotter brings matters to a climax--with one of Pink's long-drawn-out solutions to follow. Stiffly drawn characters and clumsily diffuse plotting, but the scenery--mountains, canyons--provides this lesser Pink with sporadic glimmers of vitality.