Sight Unseen

First-novelist Lorne's gimmick is not a new one--to give the ordinary-Joe hero of a mystery novel fancy new gadgets with which to outwit professional investigators and criminals alike. In this case, Spike Halleck, a former Hollywood sound effects wizard, tries to locate his niece's kidnappers by using the tools of his trade to analyze the background noise in recorded phone calls. But while Lorne comes up with a taut, convincing conclusion, he fails to make good dramatic use of his tale's twist: Halleck is newly blind, the victim of a bizarre accident during his last picture. He remains sedentary, sitting behind a keyboard and directing the attractive policewoman who acts as his eyes. His techno-tinkering with sound equipment overburdens the plot, and the shoot-'em-up ending comes too late to lend the story an infusion of vitality. ( May )