SKYLARK

A second adventure for California bookdealer Lark Dodge, a six-foot athlete now married to police detective Jay (Larkspur, 1990). Attending a booksellers' convention in London, Lark is sharing an apartment with another American—recently divorced Ann Veryan. Ann's brief, casual friendship with Czech waiter Milos Vlacek has embroiled the two women in a bizarre happening on an underground train in which Milos is stabbed, not fatally. His attackers escape, leaving behind the manuscript, written in Czech, that they were after. Later, Lark's apartment is broken into; the landlady, who lives upstairs, is killed; Milos is mysteriously moved, by ambulance, from the hospital; Lark's husband arrives on the scene, followed by her professor father—to whom she'd sent a copy of the crucial papers to be translated. There's heavy international skullduggery at work here. Meanwhile, Lark and Ann, still under police scrutiny, try to combine sightseeing with a search for Milos's whereabouts. They succeed, with considerable damage to foolhardy Lark. Elaborate, politically au courant plotting, slowed and confused by an excess of subplots, meals eaten, sights visited. Always literate; intriguing at times—exasperating at others. Add a plus for readers planning a first trip to London and environs.