Cookie

No resemblance exists between Adkins's many fine books (The Wood Book) for young readers and his trumped-up mystery. The author seems bewitched by his invented heroine, Cookie Culler, but her charms may elude readers of this incredible story. Gun-totin', hard-drinkin', foul-mouthed Cookie owns and manages a ranch in Washington State when she's not shooting and skinning a bear or, more frequently, engaging in sex with her ""Jewboy''longtime boarder and astro-physicist Nathan Lavensteinand other men about town. When Cookie's weakling brother Benjy comes home, she needs Nathan and her other pals to protect them both from hired killers. Smuggling a shipment of drugs for a group of dentists, Benjy's plane has crashed and the ``toothies'' (as he calls them) are after him. Tough Cookie and her allies unite in battles as sensationalized and explicit as the woman's repeated amours before the author writes finis to a novel that suggests a send-up of mystery-thrillers. (March)