Chameleon

Kennett tries to bring some high-tech trimmings to the mystery genre in this series featuring PJ Gray (Fire Cracker, 1997), a homicide cop who heads the Computerized Investigations Department in St. Louis. PJ creates computer simulations of crimes in order to solve them. Gray's antagonist this time also creates computer simulations of crimes--but he does it as practice for committing them. He's Columbus Wade, a troubled seventh-grade honor student who's able to mimic emotions without actually feeling them. Wade is out to depopulate his middle school's teacher's lounge while his parents, whom he refers to as the Cow and the Turd, watch a lot of TV. The lurid plot is filled with equal parts violence and handwringing by PJ, whose son, Thomas, lonely and looking for friends at his new school, begins hanging out with Wade. While the boys are enjoying milk and cookies in the unsuspecting PJ's kitchen, she is trying to figure out who is killing their teachers. She and veteran Detective Schultz, a friendly foil who prefers to do his sleuthing the old fashioned way, continue to attract and repel each other. That both Wade and PJ are whizzes with the keyboard and computer code is supposed to set up a conflict between worthy opponents. But Kennett's descriptions of the technology are cursory at best. The issue of the intersection of virtual reality and reality is fertile territory, one to which mystery authors have every right to stake a claim. Kennett seems to more be exploiting than exploring a fascinating area, however. Ultimately, clunky pacing and minimal characterization help the book live up to its title in an unintended way, as it lacks any strong identity of its own. (Nov.)