BEWARE YOUNG LOVERS

Another in Pentecost's series about Pierre Chambrun, manager of the Beaumont, a plush New York hotel. In residence now is Sharon Brand, a still-glamorous movie queen, in town for an interview on the Dick Thomas talk show. And Sharon's young lover, a shallow opportunist, is found bludgeoned to death in a nearby alley--reviving memories of Victor Lewis, Brand's previous lover (who disappeared in precisely the same hotel/interview circumstances two years before). Death #3: gossip columnist Jody Powers, found dead in the hotel elevator shaft. Plus: the apparent kidnapping of Sharon herself. So far, so good--with lots of backstage television and hotel-management chat--but Pentecost is leading toward a hopelessly implausible solution, having apparently painted himself into an impossible corner. All in all, just-passable entertainment from a never-great, never-awful veteran.