BEATING THE BABUSHKA

A movie producer falls from the Golden Gate Bridge. Is it a case for the cops?

There’s no question that Tom Abrahams took a dive. Whether he jumped or got pushed is the open question. If he jumped, the cops say it’s not their business. Pushed is different, but they don’t see it that way, and there’s a suicide note to back them up. Grace Calloway, Abrahams’s friend and colleague, dissents. “You don’t jump off a fucking bridge in the middle of a movie,” she insists to private eye Cape Weathers (Stealing the Dragon, 2007). As for the note, it says nothing more than “I’m sorry,” which is one lightweight indication of suicide. She wants Cape to prove the murder case she knows it to be. Skeptical, Cape signs on anyway. After all, Grace is good-looking, and Cape is just as susceptible as the next shamus. For lack of a better lead, Cape heads for the offices of Empire Productions, Abrahams’s employer. There he meets the batty Brothers Berman, co-chief executives, and discovers that one of them wishes to sell the business and the other doesn’t. Or maybe not. As drugs, conspiracies and the Russian Mafia get involved, the storyline begins to waver. Meanwhile, people keep trying to kill Cape, showing that they’ve read all the same books Maleeny has.

An affable enough protagonist in search of a plot.