KILLER COCKTAIL

Solving her boss’s murder might not have snared a promotion for the advice columnist at Zeitgeist magazine, but it could just be her ticket to her own romance.

Who could doubt that Molly Forrester is head-over-heels into Kyle Edwards, the NYPD detective she met in Killer Heels (2004)? She obsesses over him endlessly to her two best friends, demure event planner Trish Vincent and sex-bomb lawyer Cassady Lynch; hisses at anyone, like Southampton Detective Darcy Cook, who even looks like she’s cozying up to him; and plays it coy whenever Kyle phones. But just because she digs the guy doesn’t mean that she’ll leave his latest investigation alone. So when Trish begs her to find out who conked her brother David’s fiancée, actress-to-be Lisbet McCandless, with a champagne bottle at their engagement bash at Aunt Cynthia’s palatial home in the Hamptons, how can she resist? Quick as a bunny, she confronts all the suspects she can round up, including Veronica Innes, who’ll get the part of her dreams now that Lisbet’s dead; avant garde filmmaker Jake Boone, who’s already running footage of Lisbet’s last hours on his Web site; and Jake’s ditzy Portuguese girlfriend, Lara. Naturally, it isn’t too long before Molly’s getting death threats, too, sending Kyle to the rescue once again.

Anderson manages to be both arch and sanctimonious: a dreary follow-up to her tepid debut.