STUART WOODS' BLOWN AWAY

A nothingburger tussle between two women at a Palm Springs birthday party lands one of them in hot water when she’s suspected of killing the other and dumping her body in lukewarm water.

The victim, wannabe actress Katy Lane, hadn’t even been invited to Hollywood legend Damian Leon’s 70th birthday party. She only showed up in the eternal hope of attracting the attention of some movers and shakers. And she’s spotted early on by Ronan Davis, the ex-boyfriend who, as Damian’s personal assistant, has been in charge of party arrangements. But Ronan softens and lets her stay, leaving Katy free to push Ronan’s friend Emma Perez, head engineer at Richards Renewable Energy, into Damian’s pool (all right, the two women end up in the pool together). The next day, Katy is found floating in the pool, the victim of a lethal dose of knockout drugs administered offsite by an agent of Belarusian general-turned-oligarch Victor Popov, who’s been sniffing around RRE looking for a way to buy into renewable energy tech at way under market value—without alerting any potential witnesses like Katy. Popov has already leaned heavily on Martin Lundstrom, a second-rate RRE engineer who’s so convinced that he should’ve gotten Emma’s job that he’s more than happy to hurt her. And Capt. Warner Wilson, the publicity-hungry cop in charge of the investigation, dreams of headlines that would link him to A-list Hollywood figures invited to Damian’s birthday party, a beautiful corpse, and a slam-dunk conviction if only he can dig up evidence against Emma. Luckily, Billy Barnett, formerly Teddy Fay of the CIA, is on hand to throw one more monkey wrench into all these not very well-laid plans.

As efficiently engineered as a toy train, though the franchise regulars have precious little to do.