THE BROKEN PROMISE LAND

Sharon McCone's 17th case (A Wild and Lonely Place, 1995, etc.) is a family affair in all the worst ways. The client who's been getting cryptic threats (six different notes asking, ``Whatever happened to my song?''), country-music sensation Ricky Savage, is married to her sister Charlene. Even before he left giant Transamerica Records to strike out on his own, Ricky's marriage was under a strain, and now it looks as if his three- year-old affair with hopeful Austin singer Patricia Terriss will wreck it for good—if vengeful Patricia doesn't return from the past to kill Ricky first. Ricky's kids, including McCone's computer expert Mickey Savage, are shattered by their parents' impending split, and Charlene is already taking comfort with a new man. And the latest lover in Ricky's life is none other than Rae Kelleher, McCone's #1 operative and longtime friend. As Transamerica plots a nationwide radio blackout of Ricky's latest single, and McCone and her pals ferret out the secrets of Ricky's affair with Patricia Terriss and try to identify her contact inside Ricky's inner circle, the threats slowly escalate from letters to toxic bouquets to gunshots. But it isn't till a climactic concert in Albuquerque on a date forever immortal to Patricia that McCone & Co. will finally put the pieces together. Like all of McCone's recent cases, this one has the architecture of Ross Macdonald, but now without his economy or insight. It's still well worth reading, though, as a piercing study of the smashup of a fictional detective's family.