The gritty, heroic life of big-city police is seen through the eyes of three leading crimefighters from Charlotte, North Carolina--Police Chief Judy Hammer, Deputy Chief Virginia West, and ambitious young reporter Andy Brazil. By the author of Cruel and Unusual. Lit Guild, Doubleday, & Mystery Guild Main. Patricia Cornwell turns from forensics to police procedures in her latest novel, Hornet's Nest . This book is less a thriller than a character study of the main characters: Judy Hammer, chief of police in Charlotte, North Carolina; Hammer's deputy, Virginia West; and Andy Brazil, a young reporter assigned to ride with the police as they go about their jobs. Readers new to Cornwell may be puzzled by her high-caliber reputation as they start working their way through this sluggish and convoluted tale, but it isn't a total loss. The setting is intriguing: Charlotte, North Carolina, a city on the make, with crime rising as fast as its new glass towers. Everyone from the mayor on down is desperate to solve the latest crisis: a serial killer is specializing in out-of-town businessmen. Known for her strong female characters, Cornwell must have decided that if one heroine is good, two are better, so she presents us with a classy police chief named Judy Hammer and her top deputy Virginia West, who isn't afraid of cholesterol, cigarettes, or rednecks. Up to their stubborn necks in work, Hammer and West are not at all pleased to have to play nursemaid to a cub reporter named Andy Brazil. The son of a murdered policeman and an alcoholic mother, Brazil is hell bent on winning the Pulitzer. To that end, he's trained as a volunteer cop and wheedled permission to ride patrol. A serviceable setup and Cornwell does well with her gals, but she gets as lost as a weary shopper in a gigantic parking lot after dark when it comes to finding her way through Brazil's dead-end psyche. The scenes where West and Hammer save this silly gentleman-in-distress are quite amusing; otherwise, this is a dud. Donna Seaman Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the most famous medical examiner in fiction (see Cause of Death, p. 715, etc.), will have to fend for herself this time, as her creator leaves her behind for a big- city cop novel set in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not that Cornwell's heroines aren't just as tough (and don't need to be) as Scarpetta. Police chief Judy Hammer's force would die for her almost to a man; even her ineffectual husband dreams of being ravished by her in full cop regalia. Deputy Chief Virginia West, Hammer's head of investigations, is married only to her job and has no energy for diplomacy when Hammer assigns her to ride with Andy Brazil, the hard-charging Charlotte Observer reporter who's earned top marks at the volunteer police academy in order to snare the police beat at his paper and make his stories more authentic. And what a story Brazil's on the trail of: the Black Widow, a killer who preys on visiting businessmen, ambushing them in their rented cars, shooting them, and spraypainting their genitals orange (you won't believe why). As if the Black Widow weren't menace enough, Brazil also has to contend with slimy TV reporter Brent Webb and with vengeful redneck Bubba Rickman, who, beaten up by Brazil while riding with West, is convinced that ``it was his calling . . . to smite them in the name of America.'' The action boils furiously, but the hostility--between cops and crooks, cops and the press, cops and cops--is so unrelenting that eventually Cornwell's cast, divided into superhuman workaholics and lesser mortals driven by envy and lust, starts to get monotonous: You may hardly notice when Bubba and the Black Widow get their oh-so-just deserts. Cornwell brings an edgy authority, a gimlet eye for her city, and a taste for nonstop conflict to the police novel, but not the commanding focus of Wambaugh or Daley--or her own earlier forensic procedurals. (First printing of 750,000; $500,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; Mystery Guild main selection) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. . . . a long, detailed, and exceedingly dull police procedural that inexplicably lacks a major criminal investigation to give it focus. -- The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio ...could have used Dr. Kay Scarpetta. It could have also used a less clichéd setup (bright cub reporter paired with tough-talkin' deputy chief), fewer gross stereotypes (mincing gay sexual predator; manipulative Jewish banker), and a far sterner editing hand. -- Entertainment Weekly Patricia Cornwell's most recent bestsellers include Red Mist, Port Mortuary, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper���Case Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortem���the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year���and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain���s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American