SPLITTING HEIRS

The process server whom becalmed sculptor Adam McCleet has been avoiding isn't trying to repossess Adam's chattels; he's notifying him that he's due for a legacy under the terms of late salmon king Graden Porcelli's will. But the terms of the will- -Adam's due for equal shares with Porcelli's other six heirs if only he can get evidence that'll produce an indictment in an unsolved murder, victim and date unspecified—almost make Adam wish it had been a repo man on his doorstep. The sad fact is that the other six heirs—Porcelli's batty widow Amelia, his Tourette's-afflicted son Harrison, his dimwit nephew Sam, his quiet niece Tia, his salty old partner Tiger Jorgenson, and his veteran plant manager Whit Parkens—seem to have a very short shelf life, and as Adam's stake in the Porcelli fortune spurts up (it starts at $2.1 million and rises with each demise of his fellow-heirs), his chance of reaching payday approaches the vanishing point. Adam's only hope is to solve the 40-year-old murder of Porcelli's onetime benefactor Harold Mann—if Mann was murdered, if there's any evidence after all this time, if this is even the murder the salmon king had in mind. Meantime, Adam will have to contend with such minor setbacks as getting stuck with the Celebrity Hotel's Anthony Perkins room. Not as funny as Adam's first three cases (Still Life, 1996, etc.)—but the unaccustomed attention to the suspect heirs helps focus Hanson's bustling energy.