DeKok and the Naked Lady — A.C. Baantjer

Detective-Inspector DeKok's latest case begins with the delivery of a death announcement for Frederik Johannes Dinterloo with a message on the back: ``to meet the next victim, . . . attend the funeral.'' DeKok and his partner, Dick Vledder, note nothing odd at Dinterloo's funeral, but when leaving they find on their car an ad for a Casa Erotica, a sex theater, with the words, ``Ask for the Naked Lady.'' Vledder learns that Dinterloo was a brilliant young professor who left academia for an oil company and who later died in an apparent car accident. Dinterloo was a regular at his firm's parties at Casa Erotica's private rooms--he left one only two days before his death with a dancer named Sylvie Rebergen. DeKok finds Rebergen dead of a blow to the head, her eyes mutilated, the eighth victim of a serial killer who has been targeting divorced women. The translation could use more polish, and readers lacking DeKok's ability to ``think around corners'' may not spot the villain with the clues supplied, but Baantjer ( DeKok and the Dancing Death ) spins his usual entertaining yarn and fans will be inclined to forgive. Author tour. (Feb.)