Skins

Evocative of the likes of Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky, Skins introduces a new face on the crime-novel scene: Karen Levinson, a princess down to the tips of her bright red fingernails - and a rookie N.Y.P.D. homicide detective. Model Jennifer O'Grady is found bludgeoned to death atop her collection of silver fox, coyote, raccoon and mink coats. A portion of her hair has been excised and left beside a typed note reading: "How many of these would it take to make a fur coat?" O'Grady had been closely identified with Swank Furs, a chic chain whose flagship store had become a primary target of animal rights activists. Newly promoted from walking a beat, Detective Karen Levinson and her reluctant partner, veteran Tony Perrelli, are assigned the case. Their search for the killer takes them from the world of luxury furs to the seedy Soho offices of "Save Their Skins," an extremist animal rights group. Among those drawn into the investigation are a shy young heiress with a greedy half-brother and a dubious boyfriend; an ambitious newswoman who sees the O'Grady case as a ticket to a show of her own; and the beleaguered couple who had molded O'Grady from Times Square urchin to supermodel. The detective couple find that the solution to the case may lie less in the obvious than in time-honored, if buried, motives of passion, jealousy and greed.