DEEDS OF TRUST

The second appearance of California real-estate dealer Chase Randel (Teardown, 1990) again finds him embroiled in murder: quiet, elderly Frank Baker, who appealed to him for help when a condo deal soured, soon ``slips'' off a balconyand to compound matters, the autopsy reveals a healthy dose of cyanide in the scotch he'd just drunk. Chase is quickly immersed in property shenaniganssome perpetrated by an incestuous stepfather-daughter duo, others masterminded by a crooked lawyer or manipulated by a greedy real- estate appraiser. Moreover, Frank's widow is bearing up almost too well, and Chasein between several more deathsfinds time to chase most of the single women in the plot. Eventually, the murderer conveniently commits suicide after Chase explains all. A slick, somewhat predictable narrativeat times almost a satire on the hard-boiledas Chase joins the growing number of A.A. heroes who take their seltzers neat and their murders messy.