Knight & Day

This husband-and-wife team (he was President Ford's press secretary and she is currently the foreign editor of USA Today) spins a mildly suspenseful tale around a cute premise. Jerry Knight is a bombastic, cigar-smoking radio talk-show host who stands to the right of Rush Limbaugh. Jane Day is a politically correct Washington Post reporter who sees conspiracy lurking around every corner. They are connected only by the murder of an environmentalist who was Day's source for a big expose and who was killed immediately after appearing on Knight's show. Day thinks the man was done in by a senator who may have been involved with some dirty dealings on behalf of a plastics company. Knight thinks he was just another victim of the failed Great Society. To find the killer, they team up with a world-weary black detective who knows a D.C. reality alien to both of these Beltway types. Predictably, while Day fantasizes about bringing George Stephanopoulos home to mom, her eyes are opened to Knight's cuddly side. But this odd couple doesn't throw off enough sparks, or zingy one-liners, to lift this well-plotted work off the ground. (May)