The Evening News

In his first book in six years, Hailey ( Airport ; Hotel ; etc.) links the infamous Medellin drug cartel with the violent revolutionaries of Sendero Luminoso --``the Shining Path''--a Maoist terrorist group that in this scorcher kidnaps the family of CBA-TV news anchor Crawford Sloane. After a slow, creaky start, and despite a pasteboard cast of guerillas who shoot off more stilted phrases than bullets, the story moves with speed and heat as Crawford's valiant wife Jessica, her young son Nicky and flinty father-in-law are smuggled in coffins to Peru, then marched to a steaming, remote jungle village. Back in the States, heavy-weight correspondent Harry Partridge, Jessica's old lover, spearheads an investigation that the network's slimy parent company, Globanic Industries, tries to hamper. Gripping behind-the-scenes action at CBA-TV and a vivid primer on terrorist tactics pepper the boiling pot. Credibility gaps in the final chapters are paved over by sheer, reckless drama. Literary Guild main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Book Club selection. (Apr.)