CLOSE TO THE BONE

November: When Roger Falconer's son Glen kills a woman while driving drunk, Roger's lawyer Brady Coyne recommends Paul Cizek as the courtroom wizard who just might get Glen off. February: Paul turns the trick, but then tells Brady he's tired of defending lowlifes, asks for a referral to a good therapist, and leaves his wife Olivia for the shoals of Newburyport. June: Paul's boat turns up empty past Plum Island, with every indication of foul play (suspects: the DUI widower, a mobbed-up former client, the comely shoreline neighbor Paul may have wanted to start a new life with). There's never much action in Brady's cases (The Seventh Enemy, 1995, etc.), but this one, clever as it is, seems to swim by in slow motion, with shorthand characters providing precious little company as Brady ambles companionably along.