SHALLOW GRAVES

Boston's low-keyed, unflappable p.i. John Cuddy (Right to Die, 1991, etc.) is hired by his despised insurance-company ex-boss to investigate the murder of young model Mau Tim Dani, whose agency had insured her life for half a million. Soon after, a henchman escorts Cuddy to a meeting with notorious mobster Tommy the Temper Danucci, who, it turns out, was Mau Tim's grandfather—a fact known to her best friend Sinead Fagan, an ex-boyfriend; photographer Oscar Puriefoy, and a few others. The murder, in Mau Tim's apartment, appears to be robbery-connected, but as Cuddy rehashes at length details of times, exits, and entries, puzzling questions arise. The answers are shocking and not totally convincing. Cuddy's bloodless romance with assistant D.A. Nancy Meagher; her cat's medical problems; a parade of characters who'd be mute without their all-purpose four-letter words; and a tortoiselike pace—all add up to torpid, under-par fare from an old hand who usually satisfies.