BONE DEEP

John Becker, the FBI's one-man serial-killer extermination squad, faces an unusually resourceful and confident adversary: a madman calling himself Captain Luv who seduces women wholesale (128 at last count), strangles a select portion of them when the demon inside him tells him to, and dismembers their bodies with a lover's dedication and a specialist's expertise. The discovery of Captain Luv's burial ground in Becker's hometown of Clamden, Conn., draws Becker and his friend Capt. Thomas (Tee) Terhune into the case. As it turns out, it's not a good time for either man to track down a serial killer. Tee is already out of his emotional depths, hamstrung by his affair with the woman who found the first telltale bone and his suspicion and hatred of a cradle-robbing officer. And Becker and his wife and FBI boss, Karen Crist, are getting inveigled into a bizarre foursome with wimpy, clingy orthopedist Stanley Korn (who tells Karen that Becker is being pursued by Mrs. Korn) and his wife, Tovah (who insists to Becker that her husband is carrying on with Karen). The unwholesome Korns, not to mention Captain Luv himself, are worth the price of admission for anybody who's not familiar with Becker's three previous cases (Into the Fire, 1994, etc.). Longtime fans may wonder if the old pro isn't repeating himself.