Too Close to the Edge

BLOOD-RED BAY AREA BLUES

Smart, savvy detective Jill Smith's beat is Berkeley, where the 1960s head shops have given way to computer stores and pizza chains. But murder creates a time warp when it takes her to Rainbow Village, a half-acre on the Say set aside for "bus people" and psychedelic-painted campers.

A wheelchair-bound political activist is suddenly dead in a killing that's too close to Jill's own heart and fears. Jill had admired Liz Goldenstern. Yet along with her outrage is a growing uneasiness about Liz's intimate life ... the colorful holdover hippies of Berkeley ... and passions dark enough to embrace murder.