ERASED

Kicked upstairs as head of Special Security Projects at Jackson General Hospital, Jan Gallagher is in the perfect position to take the heat when a gang war between the Sevens and the Golds overflows into General Jack. It starts when a carful of Sevens deposit Rainy Penshorn, a Seven stalwart felled by a Gold bullet, at the hospital ER. Foiled in their attempts to get close enough to Rainy to finish the job, the Golds kidnap security guard Lyle Brown and demand Rainy in return for his release. The FBI refuses the swap on principle; the local cops have neither the interest nor a clue; so it's up to Jan and her friend Felicia Smith, the hospital social worker who's been sharing Lyle's bed and board, to rescue him without stepping on anybody's toes (and that's a lot of toes). The setup sounds like a foolproof guarantee of nail-biting action, but it isn't, mainly because Jan's rescue attempts are so spasmodic, and Bailey's third (Recycled, 1993, etc.) lacks the power to punch up either its mangled action scenes or the rogues' gallery of Sevens and Golds during the few minutes most of them get on stage. Despite good intentions—the street talk is properly edgy, and the racial tension beneath comes through clearly enough—this is, all in all, one glum read.