CRACKER

When his student Jacqui Appleby is slashed to death aboard the Glasgow-Manchester express, psychologist Dr. Edward Fitzgerald thrusts himself into the police investigation, and onto the agenda of Sgt. Jane Penhaligon. It's not an easy time for Fitz, whose gambling debts have driven his wife Judith out of the house, and he makes it equally difficult for Penhaligon by his insistence that the police suspect, a man who offers no defense but amnesia, doesn't fit the psychological profile of the serial killer they're looking for. TV's profane, undisciplined Fitz is a prodigious creation, but this novelization, based on a screenplay by series creator Jimmy McGovern, shows him more as bully than detective. Be assured, though—the double dose of hazy stream-of-consciousness writing guarantees that Fitz's second case (Cracker: To Say I Love You, not reviewed) doesn't read like a teleplay.