SUMMER READING

Bawdy. Irreverent. Wicked. Totally hilarious. And she's Boca's own. I'm referring to Miriam Auerbach whose latest in the Dirty Harriet series, Dirty Harriet Rides Again, is due out Aug. 7. Furthermore, Dirty Harriet aka Harriet Horowitz is formerly a Boca babe and now a PI with an office on 441 in West Boca Raton. Harriet became Dirty Harriet the hard way - she shot and killed her abusive husband. (For those realists who suggest divorce is easier, many ex-wives would agree that Harriet's way is more fun and the books wouldn't be nearly as interesting!)

Following the attendant legal hassles, Harriet has retreated from her privileged and pampered life as a Boca babe and now lives in a cabin in the Everglades accessible only by airboat where her closest friend is a sixfoot alligator she calls Lana. Harriet ends her days with her only indulgence, a slug of Hennessey's cognac. And for transportation, Harriet has sold her Mercedes and now has a 2003 hundredth anniversary Harley Hugger.

The book opens as two of Harriet's best friends, Chuck and Enrique, are preparing for their commitment ceremony replete with members from The Holly Rollers Motorcycle Club and Gospel Choir as "bridal" attendants. Alas, their love cannot be sanctified - at least not right away, because the Reverend LaVerne Botay, founder of the Church of the Gender-Free God, is found murdered. Struck down by a blow from a pipe yanked from the church's pipe organ, no less.

When Honey Du mellon, one of the choir members is arrested, the other Holy Rollers - Cherisse Jubilee, Virginia Hamm and Keisha LaReigne - hire Harriet to investigate Reverend Botay's murder. Contessa von Phul, we met her in the first Dirty Harriet, immediately hires local defense attorney F. Lee Dailey to represent the arrested Honey Du Mellon.

The second book carries over many characters including Harriet's multi-married mother, Stella Celeste Kucharski Horowitz Fleischer Steinblum Fishbein Rosenberg, and her newest conquest Leonard Goldblatt, the Countess, her Chihuahua Coco, and Guadalupe Lourdes Fatima Domingo aka Lupe.

The characters are so quirky and so much fun you wish they were real and your friends. The plot is clever and moves right along. The book is worth the cover price just for Auerbach's description of Boca Babes. This series is almost too much fun to be legal. Can you tell? I liked it.

Dirty Harriet Rides Again. Paperback.

Harlequin Next. ISBN 9-780373-88140-6.

Price $5.50.)