BEACH MONEY

Pairo (Winner's Cut, 1986, etc.) returns with a hip, quirky, and mean introduction to sun-bum Dallas Henry, a 35-year-old lawyer turned Ocean City motel proprietor, whose business card was in the pocket of a ``jumper''—Judson Fitch, a student on sabbatical from Stanford. Did Jud jump or was he pushed? His prissy stockbroker sister Teresa Jane wants to know, as do the local cops, but everywhere that Dallas turns he either gets a beating or another corpse shows up, including that of young Jeannie Hall—an eyewitness to the ``jump''—and that of a nameless drug- runner/money-launderer from New York. Following the money trail leads Dallas to wealthy widow Olivia Miles and party-house pool-boy Adam (her lover), who probably killed Olivia's husband while cashing in on insider-trader tips—as Jud did. Two more murders occur before Dallas links Jud's death with an elaborate stay-rich scheme and before Teresa Jane, emotionally thawed out, heads back to the city. Wry dissection of the beach culture—and of the surf-loving Dallas and his sidekicks, Herbie the dropout genius and Susan the brainy lawyer—are all top-notch.