LIEBERMAN'S DAY

Abe Lieberman's sorriest day begins a few minutes after midnight, when the veteran cop's nephew David is shot dead, and David's pregnant wife Carol wounded, by a pair of clueless muggers. As Lieberman cuts deals (``We walk for the next two felonies''; ``One felony with no assault'') with his lowlife street informers to finger the perps, his partner Bill Hanrahan has problems of his own: Frankie Kraylaw, the Christ-ridden, violent husband he and Lieberman had chased out of Chicago, is back for a reunion with his wife and son—whom he's going to find living in Hanrahan's place. Before the stunning finale inside Carol's hospital room, there'll be time for the sleuthing duo to pull off a sting against a slimy pair of con artists, get inveigled into felonies of their own, and feel long years older than when the day began. When he's in the groove, nobody writing today can mix taut suspense with a sense of creeping mortality as shatteringly as Kaminsky (Lieberman's Choice, 1993, etc.). A standout performance in a fine series.