Stormy Weather.

Stormy Weather by Paula L. Woods W.W. Norton & Co., August 2001, $24.95 ISBN 0-393-02021-5

The motive is revenge. The victim is a high-profile black Hollywood film director. And Stormy Weather is the second novel in Paula L. Woods's mystery series featuring gritty, hardboiled, 39-year-old LAPD Detective Charlotte Justice. Ultimately, I enjoyed reading Stormy Weather though I didn't get completely pulled into the story until somewhere around the middle of the book. Excessive narrative, irrelevant details, and detours into flashbacks undermine Detective Justice's humorous first-person voice that is actually one of the book's strengths.

Readers don't see the crime in action, but learn about the suspicious death of the terminally ill, 77-year-old, film director Maynard Duncan as Detective Justice examines the crime report. When he was allegedly murdered, Duncan was in the last stages of illness after suffering from lung cancer for almost two years, and he was attached to a machine that gave out continuous drops of pain medication. Detective Justice's goal: to find out which one of the seven people listed at the scene had a motive to finish him off. Her investigation is slowed down--and so is the story--because the widow, Ivy Duncan, will not give permission to release her deceased husband's medical records so an autopsy can be performed. Detective Justice trudges along anyway interviewing everyone at the scene.

Another obstacle Detective Justice must overcome is sexual harassment on the job from her superior officer, Lieutenant Steve Firestone--an all-around bad guy. After a shoot-out with suspects that Firestone has masterminded to ambush both women, Justice has been placed on administrative leave and her partner Detective Gina Cortez put on sick leave. Despite their off-duty status, the two detectives continue to investigate the Duncan case without Firestone's knowledge.

A minor romantic subplot between Detective Justice and her sometime love interest, Aubrey Scott, offers brief respites from the tedious investigation. Justice must deal with how to break down the barriers against love and commitment she constructed 14 years ago when her husband and child were killed. She buries her emotions and throws herself into solving the Duncan case 24-7. Not only does her love life suffer, but also a mother-daughter conflict arises when Justice cannot receive the unconditional approval she still craves from her image-conscious and pretentious mother.

Though the story starts slow, fans of the police procedural form of whodunit will enjoy going along for the ride. Interviewing suspects is one of this genre's calling cards. It takes skill for a mystery writer to keep the reader entertained amidst the constant dance of interviewing suspects, going over police records, studying the crime scene, and uncovering motives and looking for murder weapons. In spite of the narrator's too frequent digressions, it's interesting to follow Detective Justice as she weaves in and out of the Hollywood scene, investigating a maze of power hungry, suspects. Looking for the perpetrator, Detective Justice discovers the "soiled linens" hidden in many of her suspects' dusty family closets. At times the plot in Stormy Weather sags and dips, but true mystery fans will want to hang on until the ride is over.

Dorothy Phaire is a novelist and freelance writer working on her second mystery novel.