A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

Wheelchair-bound paraplegic Stick Foster, an Orlando, Florida, reporter, attends a fancy shindig at the law firm his wife Sam (another ``para'') works for when the senior partner drops dead. With derring-do and a little B&E, Stick uncovers a murder-by- rigged-statue scheme that leads to two more deaths and could have had any of several motives—revenge for cuckolding? a quick ascent to partnership for an impatient associate? a rival law firm's means of insuring winning the multimillion-dollar Fraiser case? Early on, Stick enlists the aid of former girlfriend Ellie and the young high-schoolers from Mall Rats (1992), but when someone sets fire to their house, Sam takes up pistol shooting, and it's her skill that will save them when a seriously disgruntled lawyer decides on a final payback. Lawyers, who are seen here as—no surprise—ruthlessly competitive, morally slippery, and venal, may wince at this authorial drubbing. More readers will be put off, though, by the mean-spirited sallies among Sam, Stick, and his ever-so idiosyncratic chums.