Doll Eyes

Rooster Franklin, the laid-back former car thief and mystery series hero introduced in Hot Wire , proves to be nothing but a patsy in this unsuccessful tale built on greed and love-blindness. Shortly before his prison sentence is up, Kansas City, Kans., crime boss Marc Morelli anticipates seriously hurting Rooster, who put him away. Rooster, however, is more concerned with Morelli's sister Rosalinda, a former true love whose affections he intends to reclaim. Flying from Seattle to K.C. to convince Rosalinda to marry him, Rooster is too thick-headed to pick up on friends' hints that his devotion is one-sided. He lets himself into Rosalinda's house and finds the body of a woman recently shot to death. Next he learns that Rosalinda, who had sold her house to the victim, has married a high-society type. Deciding that his true love has fallen unknowing into her current situation, Rooster determines to investigate and save her, and in the process he uncovers evidence of kinky sex, panes of fantastically valuable ``inverted'' postage stamps--and Rosalinda's true colors. Russell exercises a heavy hand here, telegraphing the plot from the first chapter and making the least of his essentially likable protagonist. (Sept.)