Night Shadows

Former TV actor (he played Tarzan) and Miss America Pageant host, Ely introduces a hard-to-like Santa Barbara investigator in this unpromising series launch. Supposedly tough-as-all-outdoors Jake Sands is an ex-military, ex-government agency, retired ``recovery'' expert (read bounty hunter) who now lives in a swank beach compound and finds much to fault in the world, from New Age music to slow waiters with dirty fingernails. Sands has two cases to unravel: not long after he discovers the body of a jogger, recently dropped by a bullet, right in his path, a long-legged blonde asks him for help in finding a missing husband. Ely angles in on the latter puzzle, making much of Sands and his client's physical attraction and twanging expected chords of betrayal and disappointment. Smug and petulant, assuming an annoying authority on such topics as classic cars, blends of coffee and the ills of the modern world, Sands is a lifeless, unbelievable character whose actions fail to hold reader's interest. (Apr.)