At the very peak of the summer tourist season, the peaceful routine of a beautiful seaside community in North Carolina is shattered by the brutal murder of a vacationing family. Police lieutenant Devon Walker, a relative new-comer to the Outer Banks - a refugee from the gritty, inner-city streets and police department of Jersey City, New Jersey, hundreds of miles and worlds away from the scenic North Carolina coast - is the chief investigator in charge of finding the murderer. Viewed with suspicion by the native Bankers who hold the reins of power, and who want instant arrests, Walker must struggle to galvanize his investigation while fending off charges of incompetence. Despite the best efforts of Walker and his two assistants, Sgt. Tony Camps, a black ex-football player, and Cpl. Dee Onslow, a no-nonsense female deputy, the trail goes cold. Getting needed help by calling in an old favor from an ex-colleague who is now an FBI special agent in the Northeast, Walker learns of two equally vicious and peculiarly similar murders that occurred in other parts of the country. Through painstaking police work, Camps and Onslow piece together the disparate bits of information and discover that the Outer Banks are a common link, albeit tenuous, between the victims. Former street cop Walker comes to understand that while the tideland marshes and beaches possess a serene beauty, they also conceal lethal dangers for the unwary - reflections ultimately providing him with critical insights into the mind of the killer he pursues. Tough cop tracks a Rambo-like psychokiller to his Outer Banks lair in a gory, predictable, but rapid-reading fish-out-of-water thriller. It's not enough that a family of tourists are bludgeoned to death in a tiny motel room in the breezy, laid-back Outer Banks of North Carolina. Why did the killer hack off his victims' fingers and toes? Exceedingly competent, gung-ho Dare Country Police Lieutenant Devon Walker grows annoyed when his investigation is frustrated by squeamish, backbiting ``Banker'' politicos who fear that the grim publicity will upset the tourists. In dialogue so wooden that even Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't play it for laughs, Devon, not a native, moans that ``the mayor doesn't trust me because I'm from New Jersey.'' Meanwhile, a burly, bearded fellow whose black pick-up has a North Carolina license plate is kidnapping gay men from as far away as Manhattan. Could this be the same villain who murdered a recently married Pittsburgh couple vacationing in the Outer Banks? Saunders, whose previous series of comic historicals followed the Flashman-like adventures of Fenwick Travers (Fenwick Travers and the Panama Canal, 1995, etc.), keeps this minutely plotted catalogue of cop novel clichs fresh with fun facts about DNA blood testing, telephone calling cards, and police department budgets. He also unveils a few local oddballs, such as the cross-dressing kleptomaniac who also happens to be psychic, and the insidious Dr. Severus Triskelion, a surgeon (also from New Jersey) who likes hurting his patients more than healing them. As a hurricane rages overhead, Devon finds himself in an explosive firefight with a demented, heavily armed Special Forces vet who just may be a descendant of the notorious pirate Blackbeard. Lame dialogue, discursive plotting, and a preposterous shoot- 'em-up climax aside, Saunders's series opener satisfies more than not, offering page-turning suspense and the author's meticulous respect for detail. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Used Book in Good Condition