The Time of the Wolf

Antiques dealer par excellence Kay Williams has had her well-manicured, shapely hands on world-class gimcracks before: a Fabergé egg or two, Adolph Hitler's personal pistol, a diamond tiara from the estate of J. Paul Getty. But the object of desire in this second book about Williams by the veteran crime writer William D. Blankenship makes them all look like so much junk. Kay is one of six people at a private auction in Austin, Texas, bidding for a Bowie knife--the original blade worn by Jim Bowie at the Alamo. Money isn't the problem: Kay's oilman client will pay whatever it takes to get the most famous blade in history since Excalibur. But one of the bidders wants the knife so badly that he's ready to kill for it.

The suspects are a colorful and varied lot, including that most predictable of current crime icons--the Russian mafia heavy posing as a top diplomat. His body is being guarded by a cold-hearted killer called Bud Wolf, a very nasty piece of work who has designs of his own on the precious knife. Also on the scene is Kay's ex-husband, a skilled con man who can smell profit and who threatens to add some logs to an already hot fire.

Will Kay prevail--or even survive? In the hands of a consummate master of the entertainment arts like Blankenship, you don't have to ask. The story line of The Time of the Wolf might be sheer fluff, but its only begetter treats it as seriously as if it were King Lear. --Dick Adler