DOLLY AND THE BIRD OF PARADISE

Even more than in previous frothy capers, Dunnett's taciturn, super-cool hero Johnson Johnson (portrait-painter/secret-agent) takes a back seat to a quirky female narrator: this time it's punk-haired, tough little Rita Geddes, a Scottish makeup artist—and a protege of Hollywood's legendary, about-to-retire Kim-Jim Curtis. (He's part of a make-up man dynasty a  la Westmore.) Thanks to Kim-Jim, Rita gets a lush job as private make-upper to celebrity-journalist Natalie Sheridan on the isle of Madeira. But the new job soon sours: Rita is attacked by Natalie's erstwhile lover Roger van Diemen, a dope-addict/dealer who's jealous of Natalie's liaison with Kim-Jim; then dear Kim-Jim is dead at Natalie's villa—an apparent suicide but really a murder victim. The obvious suspect? The now-vanished van Diemen, who's part of a drug-ring which Johnson Johnson (a quiet bystander thus far) is trailing. So, though Rita is sure that Johnson's "a poof and a bastard," the two team up to avenge Kim-Jim—heading for the West Indies, where the drug-ring seems to be centered. . . and where Kim-Jim's various, nasty relatives live. And, after some gory violence, an ordeal-at-sea, and reliable sailing action (the Doily of the title is Johnson's yacht, you'll remember), the full extent of the drug-dealing conspiracy is revealed—along with some related secrets about narrator Rita herself. . . who hasn't been playing fair with the reader. As usual, then, Dunnett doesn't offer a very convincing or satisfying plot; the pacing is uncertain—first draggy, then frantic; and some of the oblique comedy (e.g., Rita's cute hatred for Johnson) is merely precious. But fans of the frou-frou-style English mystery (modeled on Allingham, not Sayers, Marsh, or Christie) will again find much to enjoy—in the arched-eyebrow dialogue, the glittery international backgrounds, and the undeniable singularity of combative heroine Rita.