There's a lot to be said for the old-fashioned virtues of solid research, lucid writing and a strong narrative engine. Lupoff says them all in this latest entry in his satisfying series about insurance investigator Hobart Lindsey -- working this time to find out why a colleague was gunned down in a New York alley. The murdered man was an African American married to an Italian Jew, and their 10-year-old daughter's interest in history and computers are very helpful to Lindsey as he works his way through a plot that mixes a valuable Roman relic, a World War II art theft scheme and some contemporary New York politics.