See No Evil

When his British girlfriend, Lizzie, disappears in a cloud of pink smoke in a Cairo perfume shop, New Yorker Leo Gold takes the matter into his own hands. With a waiter/private detective and a mute Bedouin eunuch along for the ride, Gold scales mountains, spends a night in a cave aptly named The Dark, and pretty much resists an almond-eyed harem girl. And the reader could not care less. In Leo Gold, Finkelstein attempts to create a witty, hapless character who will interest readers in a series. Instead, the banter in this skippable series launch is better suited to a vaudeville act--complete with minstrelsy ("" `Oo was I? Ma name was Toms Jefsn Washin' Linkn' X.'... you know, like deh las letta' o' deh alph-bet?' ""). (Oct.)