Backlash

Gosling's ninth whodunit doesn't measure up to its predecessors (which include award-winners Monkey Puzzle and Running Duck ). In a city called Grantham, a sniper kills police officers and escapes each time without a trace. Lt. Jack Stryker and the other detectives are at an impasse when Dana Marchant from the Justice Department arrives at police headquarters to investigate the murder of an undercover FBI agent. Sharing information with Dana, Stryker and his partner keep the computer hopping as they look for clues in the lives of the victims, but then the two men are wounded by the ghostly shooter and temporarily sidelined. Later there is a showdown in which Dana shines at canny sleuthing and hand-to-hand combat. The author tries for realism with details about the cops' romances and intense friendships. But high-flown prose and unconvincing characters dilute the effects, hinting that an able storyteller had an off day. (June)