The Cheshire Cat's Eye — Marcia Muller

ONCE AGAIN, SAVVY PRIVATE EYE Sharon McCone is plunged into intrigue and murder. This time her investigations lead her to San Francisco's "Painted Ladies" -- the landmark district of gaudily colored Victorian row houses.

Responding to her old friend Jake Kaufmann's urgent call, Sharon is shocked to find him dead in a pool of red paint in the house he was restoring. Assuming that his killer will be found among the glamorous, fashionable figures of the city's architectural community Sharon is soon embroiled in the battles between the matronly, upper-crust preservationists and the flamboyant, funky defenders of the psychedelic houses.

Her investigation narrows to the pursuit of one very valuable clue: a one-of-a-kind Tiffany lamp emblazoned with the grinning face of the Cheshire Cat. But it is when Sharon herself is implicated in Jake's death that the pressure reaches its peak -- and it takes all of her daring to get herself out of this one.