The Big Hit

In this pedestrian cat-and-mouse thriller from Harvey (Dead Game and four other Ben Tolliver mysteries), a sophisticated assassin, known only as Mongo, poses as a journalist to get access to the Manhattan hotel room of mega-movie star Catherine Delure. Mongo uses a weapon concealed in a tape recorder to fatally shoot Delure and her assistant before making his escape. NYPD Det. Jeb Barker, a member of the task force assigned to the red-ball case, rejects the theory that the actress's jewels were the object of the murder, and somehow persuades his supervisor to send him to Hollywood to identify Delure's enemies, without clearing it with the brass. There, he meets up with the fetching Dana Laramie, the star's secretary, with whom he begins a clich%C3%A9d romance. The mysterious person who ordered the murder wants Mongo to clean up some loose ends, and the cop and the killer end up pursuing each other. Readers should be prepared for lackluster writing and improbable developments. (July)