MYSTERIES : `TRUNK MUSIC' AUTHOR HITS ALL THE RIGHT NOTES.

Byline: Linda Litchfield Special to the Daily News

``Trunk Music'' by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown; $23.95). Our rating:

Local writer Michael Connelly is now getting the kind of reviews that place him among the elite of U.S. hard-boiled crime writers. In his latest book, ``Trunk Music,'' the author has created a tough, convoluted tale of corruption in the entertainment industry and the Los Angeles Police Department that is a microcosm of the city's woes.

Veteran police detective Harry Bosch is called in when the body of producer Tony Aliso is found in the trunk of his car on Mulholland Drive, right above the Hollywood Bowl, where an audience is enjoying a Labor Day concert. Since Aliso was shot at close range in what looks like a gangland hit (hence the term ``trunk music''), Bosch takes a close look at the dead man's frequent trips to Las Vegas to gamble and cheat on his long-suffering wife. A search of his financial records suggests that he may have been laundering money for the mob; his scams have not escaped the attention of the LAPD's organized crime division, which is acting strangely, and of the Justice Department.

Bosch may be a fine detective, but he is usually at odds with his commanding officers and Internal Affairs. In ``Trunk Music,'' the suspect he arrests falsely accuses him of planting the murder weapon (shades of the Simpson case); more important, he is guilty of romantic involvement with ex-con Eleanor Wish - a former FBI agent with whom he had a serious relationship several years and several books ago. Bosch is trying to get his life back together, from his career to his resurrected affair with Eleanor to rebuilding his home in the Hollywood Hills, destroyed in the Northridge Earthquake.

A former police reporter, Connelly is comfortable discussing the most technical forensic details and the ins and outs of LAPD politics. His post-riot, post-Simpson department is still reeling from rapid change: the old guard vs. fast-rising female officers and minorities. For example, Bosch's partners are African-American and his boss is a lesbian. And this conflict between old and new plays a key role in the plot, which takes some unexpected twists and turns before the final violent denouement in Las Vegas.

``Three to Get Deadly'' by Janet Evanovich (Scribner; $24). Our rating: Three Stars

In ``Three to Get Deadly,'' author Janet Evanovich returns to the mean streets of Trenton, N.J., where female bounty hunter Stephanie Plum once again is giving her nosy neighbors something to talk about.

Stephanie has been assigned to find a popular local candy store owner, elderly Mo Bedemier, who is wanted on a minor weapons charge, and she is encountering unexpected resistance from his many friends. Wherever she goes, however, she keeps finding bodies, including several buried in the basement of Mo's store. And there are rumors that someone is permanently removing the city's drug dealers.

Evanovich's popular series is noted for its humorous characters and authentic atmosphere. Stephanie Plum is a blue-collar Everywoman who became a bounty hunter for her shady cousin Vinnie out of financial need - to the despair of her family, who would rather see her get married or, at least, buy a sensible car. Her on-the-job training is assisted by police detective and occasional lover Joe Morelli; by Vinnie's other bounty hunter, a taciturn, tough as nails pro in the style of Robert B. Parker's Hawk; and by Lula, the reformed hooker. Now an file clerk in Vinnie's office, the big and brassy (and proud of it) Lula is a hysterically funny sidekick.

But Stephanie is the key player. You have to love a woman who turns into a lethal weapon when the bad guys threaten the life of her pet hamster.

``Death Is Now My Neighbor'' by Colin Dexter (Crown; $24). Our rating: Four Stars

More than the North Atlantic separates the highly civilized streets of Oxford, England, from Trenton, N.J. - the gap between two entirely different subgenres of the mystery. Dexter is a master of the classic British police procedural, and, fortunately, PBS has introduced his cantankerous Inspector Morse to a wide audience.

In ``Death Is Now My Neighbor,'' Morse is trying to find the killer of a young physiotherapist and cleverly deduces that her neighbor, an unscrupulous journalist, may have been the real target. Somehow the murder is tied into the ever so polite but deadly duel between two Oxford dons for a high college position; both men and their ambitious wives have secrets to hide.

Dexter takes his time laying the foundation for his tangled plot, switching from one set of often unidentified characters to another in a confusing manner. But the reader who sticks it out will be rewarded. All the elements come together in a neat, well-constructed whole.

On the personal side, the hard-drinking Morse finally gets his comeuppance; he is diagnosed with diabetes, but that may not slow him down for long. And we finally find out his first name.

``A Letter of Mary'' by Laurie R. King (St. Martin's; $23.95) Our rating: Four Stars

Laurie R. King's series about Sherlock Holmes and his young wife (yes, wife), scholar Mary Russell, is one of the best pastiches about the Great Detective. She has created a totally believable relationship between the aging Holmes (the book is set in the 1920s) and his brilliant protege.

In ``Letter of Mary,'' an old friend, amateur archeologist Dorothy Ruskin, visits the couple, leaves a mysterious box containing a 2,000-year-old papyrus, and is killed in a suspicious hit-and-run accident on her return to London.

The papyrus is a letter apparently written by Mary Magdalene, who claims to have been an apostle of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem shortly before the city fell to the Romans. Holmes and Russell must investigate the possibility that misogynic religious fanaticism or the already troubled politics of the Holy Land are responsible for Ruskin's death. Or whether the motive is far more mundane and closer to home. They both go undercover to find the truth.

The only problem with the book is that it is hard to believe that anyone would be that upset over the noncontroversial content of the letter. Besides this shortcoming, some of our favorite characters are here: Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, the son of Inspector Lestrade (also a Scotland Yard detective). And best of all, the game is afoot again, with suitable misdirection and false trails before the diabolically clever villain is unmasked.

``The Silver Chariot Killer'' by Richard A. Lupoff (St. Martin's; $21.95) Our rating: Two Stars

Richard Lupoff has created an entire series around mild-mannered insurance investigator Hobart Lindsay and his girlfriend, police officer Marvia Plum (the couple recently has separated). Each book focuses on a fascinating ``collectible,'' ranging from classic cars to comic books to black films of the 1930s and '40s. In this entry, Lindsay's friend and fellow investigator, Cletus Berry, has been murdered in Manhattan, and, in the tradition of Sam Spade, Lindsay feels duty-bound to track down the man who murdered his partner. That search is tied into the fabled Silver Chariot of Julius Caesar, which disappeared after it was sent home from the Italian Pavilion at the New York World's Fair of 1939; it is rumored to make its owner invincible in politics and war. A crooked art dealer is looking for it, too, on behalf of an ambitious Italian-American senatorial candidate who admires Mussolini a little too much (I don't think today's voters would be very interested in a resurrected Roman Empire).

As the body count rises, Lindsay is aided by Berry's young daughter, a computer whiz, and by Berry's brother, a retired police chief, as well as a New York homicide cop who may be his new romantic interest. Lupoff's style is casual and chatty, as befits his unheroic, likable protagonist, but the book is a little too meandering, and the Silver Chariot can't compare to the subjects of his past books.

``God Save the Queen!'' by Dorothy Cannell (Bantam; $22.95). Our rating: Two Stars

Dorothy Cannell has made her reputation with a series of soft-boiled, funny mysteries set in England. ``God Save the Queen'' doesn't feature her usual heroine, but instead is a stand-alone satire of the British country house mystery.

At Gossinger Hall in Lincolnshire, everyone is dismayed when the elderly owner, Sir Henry Gossinger, suddenly decides to leave the hall to his devoted butler, Hutchins, instead of his heir, Vivian. Within hours, Hutchins falls to his death in the castle's medieval garderobe, and his innocent young granddaughter Flora tries to find out if he was murdered. The answer may lie in the Gossingers' famous silver collection, which was in Hutchins' care.

In Cannell's timeless world of stately homes and family secrets, the servants are as eccentric as the Gossingers (only the young lovers, Vivian and Flora, seem at all normal). But for some reason, her humor seems flat and forced. Nevertheless, her many fans may enjoy it.

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Photo: In ``Trunk Music,'' author Michael Connelly has created a tough, convoluted tale of corruption in the entertainment industry.