COP KILLER

Taciturn Martin Beck, both too stoic and too tired to talk much, and two of his associates wonder who assaulted and garotted a homely woman, always in heat. The readiest-made suspects—two previously convicted and released killers, and the dead woman's husband—are discarded when three bullet-ridden cops make the case more immediate. If no different in the continuity that's governed by Beck's immutable figure and designed for a nihiI obstat readership.