Susan Dunlap, Civil Twilight

In San Francisco lawyer Gary Lott persuades his stuntwoman sister Darcy to do him a favor; he asks her to occupy his client Karen Johnson while concealing what she does from their sibling John the cop. Though she has a zillion questions Darcy meets Karen, who says she is divorcing her spouse former football star Matt, but Gary is not a divorce lawyer.

Not long after her meeting with Darcy, Karen leaps from a high-rise building onto a freeway. Her suicide bewilders Darcy; so she investigates the woman. Darcy learns that Karen had numerous identities, but the one most stunning is that of Sonora Eades, who allegedly stabbed to death a noted cookbook author over a quarter of a century ago.

Zen Buddhism is the key to solving the murder, the suicide, the multiple identities and the key question of "How do you step off the hundred-foot pole?" Fans will enjoy seeing San Francisco through the eyes of the heroine as she brings her Buddhist perspective to landmarks. Brisk with a great final twisted confrontation to a terrific whodunit and a surprising killer, CIVIL TWILIGHT is a fabulous San Francisco treat.

Harriet Klausner