RED KNIGHT

Oddly coupled private investigators Delbert ``Dub'' Greenert and his black girlfriend Vonna, last seen in Davis's White Rook (1990), sort out the kidnapping of an old-line liberal New Orleans attorney. For whom was the bomb in lawyer Raleigh Lee Menzies's mailbox meant? Probably not for luckless lowlife ``Bantam Billy'' Alberts, who had the bad fortune to trip the trigger. Billy's brother, however, takes the bomb personally and holds the addressee responsible. He is only one of the many people in New Orleans who would, apparently, like to see the last of Mr. Menzies. Menzies made a lot of enemies when he campaigned for civil rights back in the Sixties and then published a very revealing autobiography. Menzies is too noble to be awfully worried, but his wife's best friend has more sense. She hires Dub Greenert to look after the Menzies family. Rejecting the protection, Raleigh Menzies is promptly kidnapped. The FBI and the tough New Orleans cop Menzies rescued as a lad from racist policemen try to keep Greenert off the case, but Mrs. Menzies, who seems to have a drinking problem, trusts only Dub. Testy from dieting and from bickering with Vonna, who isn't dieting but should, Dub is not running on all cylinders- -but his southern sense of duty keeps him on the job long enough to get kidnapped himself. Davis's formidable writing skills show up in the scenes of southern suburban sprawl, but there are no real surprises here.