THE EDGE OF THE CRAZIES

``Blue Deer had always boasted a high rate of insanity,'' reflects archeologist-turned-sheriff Jules Clement, and it's no idle boast. Even before whoever's been hiding in the new law offices of Biddle & Rake perforates both local screenwriter George Blackwater and his computer, this little town (pop. 3,872), tucked into the Montana mountains, is thronging with amiably appealing crazies; all George's lamentably nonfatal shooting does is sharpen their appeal by turning them into suspects. There's George's delighted wife Mona, the most likely suspect, whom Jules questions in a living room that's ``beige in every sense of the word'' just before she manages to remove herself from suspicion by getting killed considerably deader than George; George's spiteful older brother Ray, who writes thrillers and writes people off; disenchanted former lovers of George like Blue Deer Bulletin editor Ada Santoz and (maybe) George's former assistant Alice Wahlgren; the current lovers of those former lovers; laughably corrupt former deputy Bunny McElwaine, who surely knows more than he's saying about a 20-year-old fatality that's still on George's mind; and a supporting cast that could have strolled out of James Crumlish or Northern Exposure. Warm, flip, and as wiggy as the interspersed police blotters it so faithfully imitates. Harrison's debut will have you checking the schedule for the next train back to Blue Deer. (Author tour)