Strikezone

Nighbert's ( Timelapse ) second novel is a workmanlike but unremarkable mystery. William ``Bull'' Cochran, a former minor league pitcher whose career derailed when he killed a batter with a wild pitch, now owns a moving and storage company in Galveston, Tex. The circumstances of his life abruptly change again when two masked men walk into his place of business and kill his partner, Juice. Initially Cochran is a suspect, but as threats against his life intensify, the police speculate that Juice may have been involved in drug dealing. When the police investigation hits a snag, Cochran decides to ``snoop'' on his own, with very mixed results. The characters and situations here will be familiar to aficionados of the genre: there's a beautiful plainclothes detective named Molly, a crusty skeptical detective running the investigation, long expository chunks of dialogue, some snappy repartee and several brutal workovers. The local color is distinctive, however, and the pace is hard and clean. (Aug.)