DREAM HOUSE

Rehabbers and preservationists fiddle while LA burns.

Someone’s been defacing properties owned by the movers and shakers of the Historic Architectural Restoration and Preservation Board, and tabloid crime columnist Molly Blume (Blues in the Night, 2002), provoked by an assault on fierce old HARP activist Walter Fennel’s home in Hancock Park, thinks there might be a story there. Rescuing fuddled architecture professor Oscar Linney from wandering the streets and sitting through a typically rancorous HARP hearing persuades Molly that there is indeed a story—somebody’s clearly targeting the HARP brass—but it darkens unimaginably when the house Linney bought for his daughter Maggie, who vanished five months ago, burns down with him inside. Was Linney caught in the neighborhood crossfire? Had he found out too much about Maggie’s disappearance? Or was he killed by the same person who got rid of her? Taking time out from the Orthodox observances to which she’s returned, her chaste romance with a rabbi who’s not allowed to touch her, and an exhaustive listing of her opinions on everything from ABBA to Yiddish (a glossary translates her relatives’ idioms for readers who haven’t been paying attention), Molly tiptoes through a minefield of greedy developers, exasperated homeowners, disappointed suitors, and agoraphobic neighbors.

Krich shifts suspicion expertly from corner to corner of her broad canvas. Whatever you think of arson and murder, you’ll be glad you don’t live in Hancock Park.