LIEBERMAN'S THIEF

After his wife is stabbed to death during a bungled burglary attempt, Saginaw Park investment-broker Harvey Rozier asks that Sgt. Abe Lieberman be assigned to the case—even though Rozier murdered his wife himself and lives in fear that Lieberman will track down the hapless burglar who interrupted the killing. And he's not alone in his fear. While the witness, rabbity burglar and Sunday painter George (Pitty-Pitty) Patniks, hides under the covers from Rozier and the cops, Dr. Jacob Berry—the new Uptown Chicago police physician—cowers in his office with his illegal handgun, terrified of three teenagers who taunted him from a nearby el platform. And Lieberman's partner, Bill Hanrahan, who's bent on breaking Rozier's careful alibi, feels the heat from a Chinatown elder determined to keep him from marrying Iris Chen. The only comic relief comes on the home front, when Lieberman and his wife find their home invaded by a neighboring rabbi obsessed with buying the place now, right now, tonight. Another stellar performance, alight with menace and compassion; and if it's not up to the lonely heights of Lieberman's Day (1994), very few procedurals are. The biggest mystery: Why isn't this outstanding series, now in its fourth book, pulling in the vast audience abandoned by Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small?