Remote Control

This British import has almost everything: a mysterious ``suicide'' in prison, infighting between Britain's foreign and domestic security services, vicious gangsters (English and European), the German struggle to ferret out former members of the Stasi, romance between the handsome hero and his beautiful bodyguard, a nastily brilliant villain and even a happy ending. But there's little life or, in the end, sense to the story. Detective Chief Inspector Laurie Shaw has left Special Branch in response to the imprisonment of his feckless younger brother, Terry, for armed robbery. When Terry dies in prison and is declared a suicide, Shaw suspects foul play; official stonewalling confirms his suspicion, enhanced by his knowledge that he's being followed. So the ex-cop teams up with his brother's old girlfriend, Jill, and together the two fend off various dangers in a variety of locales (northern England, London, Germany) before Shaw, against very good advice, goes solo after the villain. Few readers are likely to care about the annoyingly phlegmatic Shaw, the willfully mysterious Jill or their adventures, none of which is helped by Royce's ( Limbo ) generally flat and humorless writing. (June)