CONFESSION OF A HIRED KILLER

The murder of quiet Belgian Robert Dubour on the Greek island of Serifos holds the key to scores of secrets, beginning with the murdered man's multiple identity as Neville James Footman, Frank C. Johnson, and Jean Louis Dupre, a free-lance hit man for the Cosa Nostra. Learning that Dubour/Dupre left behind a lengthy list of his jobs and a letter for the son he never met, police in four countries tangle with Mafia capos and kidnappers to answer the non-riddle of who killed the killer and why. The long-sought letter to Jon-Jon Lucas, of Berkeley, California, is disappointingly unrevealing, though Elsinck (Tenerife!, Murder by Fax) saves a nice surprise for the last page. Gimmicky and uninvolving--despite its wild farrago of murder and assorted intrigue.