Thursday's Child

White ( Fault Lines ) won an Edgar for her first novel, but here she misses by far. Gar Sinclair, forced to retire from the LAPD when crippled by a gun wound, is now a PI eking out a living tracing missing children in Hollywood. He's hired by millionaire movie mogul Saul Epstein to find his 15-year-old grandson, Beau, who, having been uprooted from the jungles of Central America when his parents were killed, hates his grandfather and the glitz of Tinseltown. The other, almost unconnected strand of plot concerns hired killer Robert Turchek, who needs lots of cash to keep his invalid younger brother in a convalescent home. Sinclair's hunt for Beau generates little suspense, even when a bungled murder attempt by Turchek puts several characters on a collision course. And labored prose slows the narrative even more. (Feb.)