Shadow Dancers

In this tricky, bloody chiller, New York City police lieutenant Frank Mooney, irascible and near retirement, tackles what appears to be a case of copycat killing. It seems that Ferris Koops, a brain-damaged drifter, is imitating the sexual-assault-and-murder crimes of Warren Mars, who leaves phallic crayon doodles and strange numbers next to his mutilated victims. But there's a catch, and to reveal it would give away the surprise ending and its psychological underpinnings. Suffice to say that while the plot is not uncommon for TV crime movies, Lieberman ( City of the Dead ) leads us on an adventure through the seamy, pathetic world of the urban dispossessed. Warren Mars, whose childhood home was the tunnels beneath Grand Central Station, shares a sick mutual dependency with Suki Klink, an old crone who grows hallucinogenic plants in her crumbling house on Manhattan's southernmost tip. Mooney has 90 days to crack the case, otherwise his snarling boss will reassign it to get the ``media swine'' and police commissioner off his back. Even alert readers will likely be left dangling till the end, as Mooney is. (June)