Point Blank

Adroit in interweaving plots, subplots, a panoply of police detectives and nubile murder victims, Livingston has neglected to endow his first novel with one necessary ingredient: a truly discernable hero. Sacramento police detective Stu Redlam heads the major investigation to arrest an oversized brute of a hired killer, Walker Moon, before he slaughters and then sexually molests another victim; there are eight women on his hit list. Livingston makes a stab at giving depth to his major character by spicing up his after-hours life: Redlam's wife leaves him and he meets a new significant other. Since Redlam is only one of an array of cops, however, the reader has a hard time focusing on the apparent protagonist. Subplots involve two other searches: a robber of convenience stores (whom readers know is this same Walker Moon) and an off-the-record look into the death of a policeman ostensibly killed in the line of duty but believed by his partner to have ``committed professional suicide.'' When the various story lines coalesce, the result is first-rate cop drama--the excitement of the quest for justice with the lagniappe of a cop's softer emotions. (Jan.)