THE FARNSWORTH SCORE

Burns' The Alvarez Journal won the MWA's award for Best First Mystery in 1976, and this is more--or rather less--of the same, with Detective Gabe Wager of the Denver Police Department out on another cocaine bust. During its short course, he assumes the alias of Gabe Villanueva, a junkie, in order to make a contact; he's also accused of being ""a chicken taco."" But, before he's through, he's located the bigger operation at stake--the production of an LSD equivalent called MDA which Gabe manages to seize in a lunchbag, ten pounds full. Snort if you will, but an award-winner it's not.