Badger Game

The right ingredients are here--a clever killing, hanky-panky in the art world, colorful characters, wry notes on life in 1962 and today, a rich plot, hints of kinky sex and some violence--but they don't blend for a satisfying caper. Abstract artist Harrison Tyler plans to ridicule young super-realist Arthur Cleveland in a painting in hopes of triggering a lawsuit that will squelch Cleveland totally. To help, Tyler hires Thomas Curry, idealistic self-disbarred lawyer, and Sandy Cadette, girl Friday in the elder Curry's law firm. When Tyler is an apparent suicide, Thomas and Sandy, who are in love but can't quite admit it, set out to prove it's murder. The prime suspects are Cleveland and the shadowy, sinister ``entrepreneur'' Olivier Giraud, who occasionally sells Cleveland's pictures. But attorney Bowen ( Can't Miss ) seems afflicted with lawyerly logorrhea (``he couldn't have fired the gun in the way it would have had to have been fired if he had killed himself'') and when he isn't clumsy he's arch. Thomas and Sandy are not cute, they're just early Yuppies. (June)