A Man of Respect

This book rings true only in the sense that the characters sound as banal as wire-tap transcripts. Fifteen-year-old Bephino (""Bepy'') Menesiero catches the kindly eye of Don Emilio, boss of all bosses, in the 1940s. The don gives Bepy his first hit assignment, which he executes with style. And for the next 40 years it's ever upward for Bepy, representing the Mob in shaking down hero sandwich shops and bookmaking operations, infiltrating hotels and casinos, a Mexican tchotchke factory and the stock market. He also does the occasional murder job. Bepy's hits are always imaginative``exotic,'' as he calls them, but readers will find them flatly described in a sea of stultifying cliches. None of the characters come to lifeall sound boringly alikeand by the time Bepy is annointed as don of his own small crime Family in the 1970s, few readers will care. London (a pseudonym) promises a sequel; one hopes for less verbiage and more action. 40,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo.(May 19p)