DEATH SPIRAL: Murder at the Winter Olympics

Lesley Grey, the skater-sleuth in this inoffensively amateurish mystery-debut, comes to Squaw Valley to compete in the Olympics for Britain. (Her English-accented narration is hopeless US, despite an occasionally ""rot"" and ""bloody."") She has also come to rekindle her not affair with Russian skater Dima, the ""Warren Beatty of the skating world."" (There's a flashback to their first fling in Moscow.) As the games get underway, however, troubles brew: someone sends Lesley threatening notes about her Dima connection; Dima, it seems, is far from faithful--though he is thinking of defecting. And then Dima's dead, supposedly of natural causes. But Lesley, sure that it's murder (nasty blood-type switchings), sleuths away--suspecting Dima's lady-friends, the KGB, and other political types. With lackluster plotting and minimal action, this is inferior in almost all respects to Emma Lathen's Winter Olympics mystery Going for the Gold; but Olympics buffs and skating fans may appreciate the frequent chats about sports-lore and Squaw Valley history.