THE BLOND BABOON

In van de Wetering's knottily well-written procedural series, the Dutch detectives-meditative loner de Gier, miserably married Grijpstra, their frail-Buddha boss--are ten times as interesting as the other characters and one hundred times as interesting as the crime. That's truer than ever in this case: the murder of ex-chanteuse, furniture-import tycoonette Elaine Carnet. Though much attention (and the title) is given to Elaine's philosophical ex-lover known as ""baboon,"" neither he nor the other suspects--Elaine's swank daughter, her business partner, her Italian export contacts--engage, not even when it turns out how they're all related by bed and/or blood. There's a strong chase scene toward the end, but you sense that de Gier and Grijpstra are always mordantly drifting off--in and around the meaning of life and such--and they will only really appeal if that's your cup of tea.