FIRST AND TEN

More trouble for the luckless Buffalo Bills: not only are they out on strike with the rest of the league, but their free safety, Santa Arkwright, is getting cryptic notes threatening them with death if they don't get back on the field. After teammate Shrimp Coleman is killed at a fund-raiser for Reading, Inc., an adult literacy project, Santa, on a midnight prowl to the project's headquarters, finds evidence that Josh Nachman, Reading's director, is fronting for a bookmaker anxious to replace his revenues lost to the strike, and it isn't long before the rest of the pieces fall into place. Unfortunately, there are still a hundred pages to go—and though it's fun to watch Santa, hobbled by back surgery, switch girlfriends from one suspect's daughter to another's as he runs rings around the cops trying to nail Josh and his confederates, this brightly written first novel tends to sag before the long-delayed end. Santa's a find, all right—but who's sending in his plays?