AND BABY MAKES NONE

Second novel by the author of the well-received, dark, gritty The Monkey Rope (1990). Seymour Lipp—a Brooklyn Heights lawyer—is now hired by Tricia Morissey, 16, and her building contractor father, Paul. When Tricia got pregnant and her boyfriend chose not to marry her, Paul arranged for shady lawyer Daniel Dugan to sell the baby for forty grand to Vietnam vet Jack Lowry. Jack once covered a Viet child during a raid, lost the use of his left arm, has a head full of burned bodies. Will he make a good father? During the 45-day waiting period in which the mother can choose not to part with the infant after all, Tricia decides she wants her baby back and Lipp is hired to restore the child. Jack says he will fight in court. Then Paul is murdered. Does it have something to do with the codicil to his will he's asked Lipp to handle? The answer takes Lipp through a mugging, a kidnapping, contact with lowlifes and a wildly unnerving Viet vets therapy group. He's assisted by Rosalie Constantino, whom he fell for in book one, and they have ribbons of amusing Nick & Nora exchanges, largely about food and sex. No falling off from volume one—but nothing new either.