BEHIND THE SCENES

A debut novel chooses the infomercial industry as the setting for this wanly uplifting tale of a woman's post-divorce blossoming. Roger Gainey has just walked out on Sheila, his wife of 20 years, but the two are still in business together: They have created PCE, one of the nation's top home-shopping networks, and Sheila owns the production company that feeds the network its infomercials. While still in the numb-with-grief phase, she gets a call from Derek Lang, the sharkish but devastatingly handsome owner of PCE's main rival, who points out to her that her company need not have an exclusive relationship with PCE. Sheila demurs; at this point she's still loyal to Roger. But time passes, and an increasingly angry Sheila decides to follow Derek's advice. She woos a fading celebrity to pitch some face creams, then takes the resulting videotape to Derek. Sparks fly. A torrid affair begins. Derek continues to see his other lovers but is dazzled by Sheila's new-found independence and business acumen. Could his arctic heart be melting? Maybe, but Sheila will never know after someone ends Derek's life by pumping bullets into his body. Roger is the prime suspect: He's known to be jealous of his ex-wife's new boyfriend, and the murder weapon belongs to him. But wise Detective Raintree rejects the pat solution and interviews some of the big-haired women and one-step-from-jail men who populate the home-shopping world. His investigations turn up nothing, and the pressure grows to arrest Roger. The beleaguered executive teams up with his ex to reinterrogate the suspects and lucks out when the real murderer is good enough to confess. While low-rent glitz and a wronged-woman's showy healing may appeal to some, the sleuthing here is clunky and the murderer's identity obvious. More disappointing, though, is the lack of behind-the-scenes dirt, or glimpses of the cynicism that implicitly drives the new breed of television hucksters.