ASK THE CARDS A QUESTION

Tough-veneered Sharon McCone, who trembled her private-eye way through Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977), is now getting to hate going home to her apartment in a frowsy San Francisco neighborhood. Not only is houseguest Linnea, an old chum, drowning divorce sorrows in self-pity and cheap wine. Even worse, neighbor Molly Antonio has been strangled--and also to be murdered is neighbor Anya Neverman, an ugly fortune-teller who greets visitors with a gun. Among the suspects: Molly's husband Gus, who works for the nearby Sunrise Blind Center; Herb Clemente, the Center's ambitious, bitter administrator; Anya's ex-con husband, who lives in the Center's basement for no apparent reason. And ultimately Sharon, while uncovering a mini-network trafficking in stolen goods, will effect a nick-of-time rescue of Linnea. Lots of stalking around--but Sharon remains a tepid heroine, not much helped here by plot and characters that are mildly interesting at best.