A Suitcase in Berlin

New York Daily Press reporter Ed Fitzgerald's latest adventure ( Murder in A-Flat ) finds him in Berlin, teamed with a beautiful woman who wants to liberate a painting from an East German museum. In this uninspired escapade, credulous reporter Fitz is flimflammed by ditzy Claudette into retrieving her grandfather's post-impressionist masterpiece, looted from the Louvre by Nazis in 1940. Secrecy and discretion are not Claudette's forte and soon there's a passel of people aware of her plans: an American diplomat, a Berlin journalist, a West German art dealer, an East German black marketeer, a diplomat of unknown nationality and a CIA agent. Several murders, some close calls for Fitz and Claudette and vaudeville German accents (``Zo, vas zinken you about Berlin?'') fail to sparkle life into this amateurish offering. (Nov.)