Manhattan Chase

This debut mystery squanders its bibliographic premise, that Shakespeare was a figurehead, standing in for the real playwright whose authorship had to remain hidden, by making its modern-day protagonist more madman than scholar. Once the scene is briefly set in early 17th-century England, the action moves to modern-day New York City where Nelson Randall, in the last fevered stages of advanced syphilis, devises clues by which his hated brother is to hunt for the manuscript of The Tempest. When both brothers are killed, others take up the quest for a page of the manuscript written in the hand of the ""true"" author. By finding and deciphering Nelson's coded clues, they hope to locate the rest of the manuscript. On the hunt are a mismatched pair of murderous Englishmen, Charles Hayes and Giles Parker; unscrupulous lawyer and antiques collector Kevin Bailey and his unsavory sidekick, Louis Dukinski; and detective John Targo, who is supported by his former and future girlfriend, Elena Groffman. The bad guys exhibit plenty of nastiness but remain rather wooden, while the hero John Targo is blandness personified. The search through many of New York's busiest attractions (Central Park, Grand Central Station and the Empire State Building) attracts only transitory notice, a fate likely to befall this stiffly written, overplotted tale. (Aug.)