White Star

Slickly paced suspense, droll humor and extreme violence are deftly balanced in Thayer's (Ringer) new thriller, a tale of sniper vs. sniper that's the literary equivalent of shooting the rapids in a tiny canoe. Manhattan-based federal prosecutor Owen Gray loses his big case against mob boss Carmine ``Chinaman'' De Sallo, but the don loses an even bigger stake when he's shot dead at the post-trial press conference-by a rifleman stationed several blocks away. Gray's good friend, NYPD detective Pete Coates, draws the case and taps into Gray's experience as a Marine sniper in Vietnam to pinpoint the high-rise firing site. There, the cop finds the shooter's ``signature,'' a shell with a red ring painted on it. When the shell is identified as Russian-made, Gray and Coates turn to the beautiful Adrian Wade, a State Department security expert stationed in Moscow, to help ID the sniper; he turns out to be the mentally unstable Nikolai Trusov, who long ago was bested by Gray in Vietnam and who's now come to the States to force the ultimate grudge match. After Trusov plays nasty cat to Gray's mouse, including threatening the lawyer's adopted children, Gray lures the Russian to his childhood ranch in the wilds of Idaho for a shooters' showdown; meanwhile, Coates and Wade set up every high-tech trap possible against Trusov. But the Russian outsmarts his electronic trackers, setting the stage for a duel in a granite-ridged valley that is soon stained with both men's blood. Featuring reasonably believable plot devices and characters, as well as some informative sniper lore and witty banter to periodically relieve the tension, this deft thriller should win Gray a new host of fans. (Mar.)