At Sea

Cape Cod's dramatic coastline and lively, heterogeneous population supply the few bursts of color in this otherwise drab and forgettable police procedural, obviously a bid by Olson ( Dorit in Lesbos ) to enter a more commercial market. Relieved of duty pending investigation of a controversial shooting, menaced by the dead man's dangerous family, stumped and personally entangled in a possibly related, brutal rape case, Provincetown detective Peter Blue is already reeling when he learns that his wife Sara has left him. He embarks on a spree of self-destructive drinking, is severely beaten in a bar and struggles to redefine himself as he investigates Beth Charters's rape and eventual murder. Olson sparks some interest with his evocation of Provincetown's gay culture and other regional details, but the narrative is listless throughout, its plotting rough and unsuspenseful. The characters, though refreshingly free of genre cliches, are nonetheless flat and unengaging. (May)