CRIME, PUNISHMENT AND RESURRECTION

In ``Resurrection,'' the novella centerpiece of this Dan Fortune collection (The Irishman's Horse, 1991, etc.), the one- armed p.i. is trying to find journalist George Rogers, reported killed in Africa. Rogers was there to write about a Messianic leader called The Preacher—who'd led his followers to Africa, eventually had trouble with the authorities and was supposedly massacred along with his disciples. An ambitious story that tries to combine mysticism, soul-searching, adventure and violence with the uncovering of a mega-drug-running operation, ``Resurrection'' is a mess—unwieldy, confusing, florid, dull, and long. In sharp contrast is ``The Woman Who Ruined John Ireland,'' a poignantly funny tale about file clerk Isabelle Kucera, who sees herself as Gloria Graham in a script full of bygone movie idols and who wants Dan to find out who's trying to kill her. Almost as good are ``No One Likes to be Played For a Sucker,'' with its locked-room puzzle and Little Italy setting, and ``Who?,'' in which straight-ahead sleuthing produces the killer of 18-year-old Boyd Connors. A mixed bag in which, truly, less is more.