THE GOLDEN CREEP

Lesser Bagby--without the comedy that sometimes redeems his slow, talky pacing and uninspired plotting. This time author/hero George winds up as a murder suspect himself when his curiosity takes him to a nightclub called ""The Topless Towers"": he befriends literate owner/comic Simon Drew (""The Face that Launched a Thousand Quips""); he meets crude, rich Paul Peters (an unpopular nightclub regular who likes to wine, dine, and assault the big showgirls); and before the night is done George tussles with Peters, later (thanks to a mickey) waking up to find ""The Golden Creep"" dead beside him on the sidewalk--victim of a dropped piece of statuary. Longwinded interviews ensue--with Drew, with a local streetwalker/witness, with bartender Jocko (who also turns up dead), with the shady art-dealer who owned the murder weapon. But the solution is a drab one, and only Bagby aficionados will want to trudge through this mildly seamy, mostly bland and strained effort.