THE LADY LOVED TOO WELL

Introduced in last year's Pray to the Hustlers' God, Houston's Harlan Cole, an androidal sleuth sprung from a Perry Mason/Steve McQueen mold, returns to solve another seamy murder and elicit another courtroom confession à la Raymond Burr. The case: women's-libber and open-marriage advocate Cornelia Sherry is accused of knifing her lover; after all, she was discovered nude, stoned, and catatonic next to the body. But Cole and his Mexican Paul Drake (who's prone to such lines as ""We've been castrated by the caitiff caltrop of cataplexy') bring in a hypnotist to unlock Cornelia's memory, quiz a lecherous building super, and reveal--in unnecessary detail--the secret of Cornelia's rich husband's surgery: a prosthesis to remedy impotence. Some mildly juicy dialogue cannot redeem the TV casting, yo-yo plotting, and--Houston's potential notwithstanding--zero atmosphere.