Deadly Weekend

Mark Sheppard, a millionaire anesthesiologist from St. Petersburg, Fla., went to New Orleans for a weekend jaunt in January 1978, as was his habit. But this time he disappeared, and Sheppard's mysterious case was assigned to police officer Dillmann. Sheppard's body was found a month later in an irrigation ditch outside New Orleans; the doctor, a closet homosexual, had allegedly been lured to his death by a black hustler, ``Candy'' Smith. After two trials that ended in hung juries, Smith was acquitted. Dillmann's earlier books, Unholy Matrimony and The French Quarter Killers , were top-grade crime tales. This one, less probing and suspenseful, isn't their match. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)