cover image Lost and Found

Lost and Found

James Lehrer. Putnam Publishing Group, $19.95 (222pp) ISBN 978-0-399-13601-6

This latest zany addition to the ongoing saga of Oklahoma lieutenant-governor One-Eyed Mack, though full of raffish charm, lacks the zing and pace of other novels ( The Sooner Spy ) in the series. Lehrer, co-anchor of The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour , sends his Midwestern Everyman to France in pursuit of his crony Luther Wallace, speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, who has disappeared without a trace except for a note saying he won't return until he's good and ready. Having located Luther but failed to convince him to return, Mack comes back to another mystery: Why did a bus driver intentionally go over a bridge, killing himself and his passengers? He also does battle with Oklahoma governor Buffalo Joe Hayman, who wants to build two two-lane turnpikes. Peopled with nostalgic, runaway ex-marines and a ``male nympho'' Methodist minister, this offbeat morality tale is peppered with jokes and anecdotes about country music, joggers, funerals, venereal disease, lawyers and ``New Jersey manners.'' One-Eyed Mack fans will enjoy another dose of Lehrer's whimsy. (Mar.)