HE'S DEAD, SHE'S DEAD: DETAILS AT ELEVEN

A very funny, brash, insider's tour of TV types from media star Tucker (The Man Who Looks Like Howard Cosell), who zeroes in on the Republic Broadcasting System (RBS) just after its takeover by Northern Industries. Former RBS staffer Jim Sasser--now a best-selling thriller writer and part-owner of a p.i. agency--is cajoled into helping his old mates find out who's sending the hate mail, mangling the files, disrupting business, etc. Along the way to a solution he encounters the limber-limbed Ms. Mazur and the big, blue-eyed Dr. Antonia Hastings; avoids lovelorn Mona; and relies on p.i. Maureen (a Wonder Woman look-alike). Between dates, Sasser hoists a few with virtually every RBS newsman fired by the Northern brass, including ace reporter Dick Ainsley, who was working on a drug connection to the Sports Department. Then Billy Bob from News is killed, Ainsley dies and leaves a clue, and Sasser is taken for a blimp ride over Giants Stadium, during which an old Army buddy ties in the station's doings with the Medellin cartel. A final studio run-through sorts out the good guys/bad guys in time for ""details at eleven."" Tucker's ebullient style, nonchalant wit, and TV smarts make for good reading, but the drug brouhaha and Ainsley's despair are a mite too dour.