Backlash

THE TASK THAT FACED HOMICIDE SEEMED MONUMENTAL

They had four dead cops from four different precincts, all shot through the head. The headlines were screaming cop killer; rookies were making sudden career changes while veterans of the force were anxiously eyeing retirement dates. Panic was growing.

For Lieutenant Jack Stryker, the pressure was coming from everywhere: up from below, down from above and in from the outside. And with each new death, the pressure increased Was the killer shooting cops at random ... or was there a more sinister reason for the murders?

But when Stryker is hit and his partner almost fatally wounded, Stryker knows it's time to forget procedure and put an end to open season on Grantham's finest ... before he becomes the next trophy of a demented killer.

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.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.