NIGHTWATCH

It's a truism that talent in one field doesn't necessarily cross over to another. Arte Johnson, as he demonstrated those many years ago on "Laugh-In,'' is a versatile comic. He can become various characters, complete with foreign accent, and rouse laughter at will. Turn him loose on straight drama, though, and the result can be far less satisfying. In this political/military techno-thriller by Richard P. Henrick, which involves an attempted military takeover of the United States, Johnson seems a bit too stiff, even for a genre not known for smoothness. I kept expecting him to push his Eastern European accents to ridiculous extremes for comic effect. Since this abridged audio version of Henrick's novel makes it difficult to keep track of all the characters, much less the story's Byzantine plot, a little humor might not have been a bad thing. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]