BECAUSE THE NIGHT

Cops. vs. sicko-psychos in L.A.—in a pulpy melodrama (no mystery) that has a certain creepy appeal in the first half, but then becomes increasingly contrived and belabored. Dour detective Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins of the LAPD is working on two separate cases: a senseless triple-killing during a liquor-store holdup; and the disappearance of unstable cop "Jungle Jack" Herzog. They're connected, of course—as we learn in interspersed chapters about psychiatrist Dr. John ("Night Tripper") Havilland, a super-psycho who uses drugs and mind-control to turn lonely folks (like Herzog) into criminal pawns, with a terminally ill zombie as his primary hit-man. And when Hopkins' sleuthing (some of it implausibly lucky) starts leading to Dr. John, the maniacal mastermind fights back—with more murders, false leads, nasty traps. . . and seduction by one of his pawns, classy hooker Linda. ("The cop/whore entity pushed itself into a wordless, gasping trance.") Some neat cross-plotting, some okay cop-legwork—but, stretched out to nearly 300 pages, this thin invention is over-thick with murky pseudo-psychology, lurid violence (snuff films, etc.), and globules of pretentious/purple prose.