STILL EXPLOSION

Logue's first hardcover takes Twin Cities journalist Laura Malloy inside the Lakewood Family Planning Clinic just in time for a pipe bomb to kill Bobby Jameson, who's there with his abortion-bound girlfriend Christine Larsen. Pursuing her story on Minnesotans' feelings about abortion, Laura seems to find that they're all against it, as she comes up against anti-choice zealots at every turn—from Bobby's grieving family (especially his haunted brother Paul) to Tom Chasen, rabid head of the Lifeliners (``How do you feel about killing babies?''). But apart from unveiling the predictable skeletons in the Jameson and Chasen family closets, there's precious little in the way of development here: once Logue introduces her attractive heroine to these menacing, guilt-ridden types, there's nothing to do but wait for the second, climactic explosion. A false spring, with all too little mystery, for capable newcomer Laura.