Barking Dogs

Cued in by a character who has written a dissertation on Philip K. Dick, readers will recognize the plight of the protagonist as similar to that of one of the late writer's decent men bewildered at the world fragmenting around him. The brutality and chaos of modern life finally get to honest Toronto cop Mitch Helwig in 1999 when his partner is murdered. Obtaining a tiny, infallible lie detector and an illegal laser gun, Mitch becomes judge, jury and executioner of punks and hoods as he stalks the city's criminal kingpin. This vigilante drama, slick and efficient though it may be, is really the stuff of Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies. It never fulfills the promise of either the title's lie detector or of the likable, beleaguered characters. (March)