Dead in the Water

Readers will find little of interest in this tedious snake's-eye view of a Massachusetts shore town where the residents are crusty, fractious or plumb loco in ways that, apparently intended as winsome, are simply contrived. Soon after determinedly downscale trawlerman Ozzie Barrett springs his Uncle Barry from the asylum, the old man, a harmless Peeping Tom, is framed for the murder of a sexy widow found floating in her pool. That's only part of Ozzie's troubles. His wife cuckolds and leaves him. A lien is slapped on his fishing boat. And just as he finds love in the arms of a feisty boat mechanic named Ruby, his straying wife returns. Despite his woes, Ozzie breaks into the dead woman's home to scoop up innumerable clues, an event topped in unlikelihood by his twice burgling a bank and rifling high-security computer files. Chaput ( The Man on the Train ) unhandily stitches the mystery together with a love triangle and a villainous banker's massive real estate and tax evasion scams. (Sept.)