SOUTHERN CROSS

Is this a true crime or a novel? Cristine McMurdo-Wallis's per-formance doesn't give you any clues but allows the text to provide the answer. Richmond Police Chief Judy Hammer and her two assistants attempt to track down computer hackers, end gang violence and solve a racially motivated homicide. Cornwell's text links them all, in unexpected and often funny twists. McMurdo-Wallis's journalistic reading of this police drama sounds more like a radio news magazine than an entertaining story. But it works, in much the way the old "Dragnet" television series used to--"just the facts, Ma'am, just the facts." Her one all-out characterization of an immigrant socialite brings exactly the right spice to the mix. R.P.L. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 99]