Black Friday

While Patterson's thriller is slightly out-of-date with its Cold War setting, it remains dramatically contemporary in its vision of a stock market thrown into chaos when a group of saboteurs blows up several Wall Street institutions. Actor Fernandez's mellow reading allows the story to unfold unhurriedly, though too slowly for the first half. Arch Carroll, head of the CIA's antiterrorist division, and Caitlin Dylan, director of enforcement for the SEC, team up professionally, and later romantically, to locate the Wall Street terrorists before they strike again. Arch travels to Paris and back (unfortunately, Fernandez, who capably reproduces other accents, has a poor grasp of French pronunciation), as he finds himself on the trail of former colonel David Hudson and his ragtag band of vengeance-seeking Vietnam veterans. Based on the Warner mass market paperback (originally published as Black Market in 1987). (Apr.)