Professional golfer Lee Ofsted has just landed an instructor's job assisting fellow pro Jackie Piper at a beautiful Rhode Island resort. Her job is to provide golf lessons to the employees of a marine salvage company. To Lee, this is an easy way to combine a vacation with making an easy grand a day for a week. However, the anticipated idyllic week goes sour at the fourth hole when Darlene Chappell, the spouse of the salvage company president, Stuart, is almost kidnapped. Soon afterward, Stuart is found murdered.

Lee and her friend begin to investigate the murder. To their amazement, many people had the motive to kill Stuart. However, as she gets closer to the truth, Lee literally finds herself in a sudden death game in which her life is the ultimate stake.

The third Lee Ofsted mystery novel is a fabulous who-done-it due to the brilliant characterizations of the lead protagonist, her associates, and all the duffers hooking their swing. The story line is interesting as Charlotte and Aaron Elkins scribes a fabulous amateur sleuth tale. This reviewer recommends to lovers of golf and amateur sleuth stories, all three books (the previous two are WICKED SLICE and ROTTEN LIES) because they are superb mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

Struggling pro golfer, Lee Ofstead is playing the best round of golf of her career. When she hurts her arm administering CPR to Ted Guthrie, the most hated man at the golf course, Lee cannot finish the game. When her lover, California cop Graham Sheldon, joins her at the tournament, they join together to solve the murder. This was a light, cozy mystery. What appealed to me was the setting and the characters. I don't play golf but the setting was fresh and interesting without overwhelming you with golf information and the budding romance between Lee and Graham was nicely done. The authors are a husband and wife team. Aaron Elkins has written several fine mysteries and Charlotte is a serious amateur golfer and writer. The first in the series was A Wicked Slice.

The second installment of the Lee Offstead series from Charlotte and Aaron Elkins is a delightful, easy read. Though not a golfer myself, the material revolving around the course was not lost in lingo and jargon but was instead presented clearly. The authors do a good job of developing the characters and the plot lines, both those integral to the story and those developing for the book series. I enjoyed the down-to-earth character of Lee and the predicaments she faces in the story. I've been a long-time fan of the Elkins' and look forward to the third installment in this series.

Lee Ofsted is just beginning to make a name for herself in the competitive world of professional women's golf, and this tournament may well be the one that will be her springboard to stardom--or so she hopes. But the sudden, bloody death of the top-ranking player coupled with the equally sudden appearance of a screamer of a slice in Lee's usually impeccable swing kills all her hopes. Who wanted to kill the star? And what is causing Lee's incredible run of bad luck? A WICKED SLICE takes the thread of these questions through a maze of fascinating minor characters as Lee tracks the mystery to its surprising ending.

I am not a golfer, but I found the sport, with its professional players as well as the well-heeled amateurs to be a vivid, fascinating background to the story. Lee Ofsted's character is engaging, intriguing and believable. Charlotte and Aaron Elkins have created a cast of interesting characters and a plot with some truly nifty turns. I recommend the book very highly.