LITTLE EASTER

Since his introduction in Life Goes Sleeping (1991), hapless insurance investigator Dylan Klein has quit, settled down to writing in Sound Hill (Long Island), and made himself available for chores like tending bar for his friend John MacClough (ex-NYPD) on Christmas Eve—so that he's there when a woman staggers in, asks for ``Johnny Blue,'' and exits, leaving a heart-shaped cluster of diamonds behind- -and he's the one who runs to return the diamonds and finds her body a few minutes later with an unmistakable Mafia execution signature. Since MacClough clams up, just the job of identifying the victim—let alone satisfying clinging, fallen newshound Kate Barnum's insistence that he turn her golden again by wrapping up the murder—will take Klein way out past his depth, placing him at the mercy of the Gandolfo crime family and Klein's old patron, nonpareil shyster Larry Feld. An insouciant, sporadically inspired retake on The Dain Curse's angel of death—less labyrinthine than the original, though not much more convincing.