Dead Game

Imagine a cop who leaves his fingerprints on a beer bottle in the home of a murder suspect. Imagine a psychotic killer who likes to play checkers, using severed and tanned parts of his victims as the pieces, and you get some idea of why this fifth book about NYPD Lt. Ben Tolliver (Mental Case, etc.) is hard to like. Harvey asks us to believe that a vicious serial killer who holds conversations and plays games with a ""the thing in his head"" also has the skills needed to make a fortune in precious metals. The book comes down so hard on the psychiatric community for its efforts to rehabilitate sex criminals that even diehard supporters of capital punishment may wince. The humiliation and mutilation of several female victims are detailed will little sensitivity. And there's no mystery. From the get-go, readers know that the psycho killer is Edward Razek, and it doesn't take much to figure out that the ludicrous ""game"" he sets in motion is an attempt to get back at Tolliver, the cop who sent him to prison, by framing him for two killings. When the media and most of Tolliver's superiors fit him in the frame, there's no suspense because readers know not only that Tolliver didn't do it but also that Razek did. The best that can be said for his effort is that Harvey's pacing is quick. Otherwise, this game's no fun. (May)