Tiffany's death sets the music world abuzz because something just does not seem quite right about her death. Kim believes her client has been murdered and is prepared to let the police handle the investigation. When another of her clients is murdered, she has to get involved, Kim is a former New York City police officer, so investigating crimes is like breathing to her. As Kim digs into her investigation, she uncovers a trail of dead bodies with an international connection.

Who Killed Tiffany Jones is a suspense filled mystery that will keep readers on their toes. It also has a unique twist; instead of providing readers with the solutions to the crimes, the book provides the reader with the opportunity to solve the murders and the chance to win $10,000 if the reader comes up with the correct solution. If you had any doubts about reading this novel, cast them aside, reading Who Killed Tiffany Jones might pay off.

Reviewed by Simone A. Hawks

But the real deal is Who Killed Tiffany Jones? (Amistad Books, New York City; ($$$$0/hardcover; 190 pages), written by the fictitious Mavis Kaye. The novel from the HarperCollins imprint rewards ($$$) to the reader who can part the mists surrounding 13 murders, three methods of smuggling diamonds and just who is Sally. With a March 1, 2003, deadline for entries, a rush to judgment could turn a double-edged sword into a triple-bladed saber, as each succeeding chapter slashes the guts out of certitudes derived from the one before. The months it may take to ponder and postulate, however, could easily drive even Elmore Leonard or Walter Mosley afficionados stone crazy.

The challenge to armchair super-sleuths is made more difficult by the quality of the writing. The reader who isn't focused on copping the cash will probably drift into the clutches of a well-told story. Tiffany Jones, queen of a long-dead disco era, is making an unprecedented comeback, headlining a night at the Apollo alongside such heady company as Boyz II Men and Soul II Soul. She's introduced as "delightful, divine and delicious," fresh from a European tour and the Oprah show, as her 16-piece tuxedo-clad orchestra blares Satin Doll. But the diva doesn't deliver on the entrance; instead, she's found dead on the dressing-room floor, with the door locked from the inside and no other apparent signs of foul play.

From Harlem to Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Dallas, Atlanta, over to Freetown, Sierra Leone and back to Warren, Ohio, the fast-paced plot unfolds and enshrouds itself simultaneously with such an intriguing itinerary that the reader runs the risk of being lulled into the plush recline of a train-window survey, unwilling to make distinctions among a rich panorama of hot-lead vistas and dead-end side streets. Word portraits of the world tour create a shifting ambiance: the pulsing decadence of the international club scene, the grim unfinished backroom of a Harlem storefront, the gothic decay of the New Orleans garden district.

When the book turns to character development, however, the risk to the reader is frustration at the loss of quickly made acquaintances brought to life and killed off within a few pages. While some characters are thrown in to divert the journey down ambiguously blind alleys, others meet their grisly fates only after initially establishing themselves as the seemingly obvious manager of the mayhem.

Halfway through the tome, readers are introduced to Mariana Blair, a 28-year-old London tabloid journalist, who starts putting pieces together and knows she is on to the biggest story of her career. "One that would lift her out of anonymity," she realizes, "and establish her reputation as an investigative reporter. Still, she wondered if she wasn't in over her head--if she shouldn't have gone to the police or shared the information she has uncovered with someone else at the paper."

But Mariana has never trusted her editor and smells a European Union Press Award and a best-selling book. So she calls Kim Carlyle, Tiffany's manager and one-time New York City police officer, with her hunches, and goes off to a club to track down more actors for the drama. (When Carlyle rings up an old confidant, still on the force, to compare notes, he muses, "What do we have here? A plot to kill off black artists and return pop music to white folks?") Along with the mystery, the heavy action also entails drug trafficking, gun running and diamond smuggling, plus knocking off a member of Congress and taking on the mob.

Credit for the conception of Who Killed Tiffany Jones? goes to Bill Adler, whose 1983 mystery Who Killed the Robins Family?(William Morrow & Co.) posed readers with a similar $10,000 solution and made the best-seller lists for 33 weeks. When he approached former New York Times Book Review editor Mel Watkins to create a structure and story line for a similar genre entry with an international setting which included African-American settings, the result hit the charts with a bullet.

The solve-the-crime challenge is open to all legal residents of the United States, age 21 or older, except those living in Maryland, North Dakota, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. Rules are printed in the book. For those who, even after several readings, despair of ever figuring it out, take heart. Correctness counts only 60 percent in determining the winner. Creativity can pile up 20 percent of the score. And there's always that 5 percent for neatness.