COUNT YOUR ENEMIES

Spurred on by the promise of an assistant if he succeeds— and by the fact that he really doesn't have much choice—Bert Swain, homespun shamus of the Krinsky Research Center (No Good Deed, 1995, etc.), agrees to trek out to the wilds of New Jersey to find out who's faxing death threats to wealthy Anne DeVillier, tree-hugging founder of the Gaia World Institute. The problem's a no-brainer—Anne's been faxing the threats herself—but by the time Bert finds that out, there's been a complication or two: GWI researcher Peter ``Glad'' Hood, arising to deliver his pro forma condemnation of timber interests at a GWI-sponsored conference, has dispiritedly whitewashed them instead—and soon thereafter avoided questioning about his about-face by taking a fatal tumble into a pond on the GWI grounds. Elaborate, implausible villainy; flat-footed detection.