VINTAGE POLO

Wheelchair-bound Sonoma vintner Angelo Baroni, Sr., doesn't take it lightly when somebody salts a vat of his prize chardonnay and takes a shot at his son Angelo, Jr.: he hires Nick Polo (Special Delivery, 1992, etc.) to investigate—and just in time, too, since a few hours later an explosion rocks his new sparkling-wine plant. The old man is convinced that the motive is revenge for the car crash that crippled him and killed his companion, Linda Cado; but Linda's son Jimmy is already doing time, and her daughter Dolores seems likely to get her own revenge in her divorce settlement from Junior. Before Polo can tie Dolores's belligerent companion Paul Tobias or interloping gambler Victor Mardesa into the sabotage, Tobias is dead, leaving behind only evidence that he'd been bugging Dolores's house. Oh, and Jimmy's escaped from prison.... The usual smooth-and-scruffy mix of action and attitude. Kennealy's developed a quiet mastery of every aspect of the private- eye novel except the mystery.