Suicide Squeeze

Although two of Everson's earlier Bobby Miles mysteries ( Recount and Rebound ) received Shamus nominations, this latest does not seem a likely candidate for that honor. Miles, ``central Illinois's premier--and practically only--sleuth,'' often takes assignments for the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. Here he agrees to look into the hit-and-run charges against the son of Peter Duke, a legislator and the speaker's friend. At the same time, he's searching for the legislator's daughter--who has disappeared somewhere between Florida and Wisconsin--and checking out the death threats leveled against Dewey Farmer, an aging and obnoxious ballplayer hoping for a comeback with the never-victorious Chicago Cubs. Witty dialogue, refreshingly normal characters and an informal, entertaining style are undermined by Everson's prolix attention to baseball and occasionally confusing plot. The resolution is at once surprising and bewildering--not unlike the performance of a brilliant but wild pitcher. (Mar.)