DEATH WAS THE OTHER WOMAN

Gunsels, skirts, palookas and Prohibition.

The scent of lilacs waft around her curly lamb coat. Hard-drinking Los Angeles p.i. Dexter Theroux is entranced, his secretary Kitty Pangborn less so. But times are tough, the client’s dough is good and the case seems easy: Just follow the lovely Rita’s married lover Harry to the Zebra Room and see if he’s two-timing her. There’s only one little problem: There’s a corpse in Harry’s place, and it just might be Harry. For better or worse, though, it somehow ups and walks away, clearing the way for Harry’s wife Lila, who strolls in asking Dex and Kitty to find her missing hubby. Meanwhile, Dex’s best pal Mustard is playing Galahad to sweet little Brucie, recent widow of Chummy McGee’s number-one torpedo. But after somebody wings her, she disappears from the hospital. When her brother comes looking for her, it’s up to our gal Kitty to tie all three women to Harry, and maybe even to waterfront gambling czar Lucid Wilson. The tale will wend from L.A. to Frisco to Venice before the plot founders on holes big enough to drive a Packard through.

Richards, winner of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for her debut mystery, Mad Money (2004), shows no such talent here, just out-and-out silliness and dangling plotlines.