As summer nears, the best-seller lists are written in blood. Mary Higgins Clark's Loves Music, Loves to Dance, about a serial killer, is the No. 1 hardcover, and Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs was recently overtaken on the paperback list by another Hannibal Lecter novel, Red Dragon. Lecter and his kindred evil spirits, who notch body counts on their belts for the fun of it, are feeding an unprecedented public appetite for serial-killer books that tease readers with each new horror. So, in anticipation of the most sanguinary season of beach reading in memory, here's a guide to eight of the most notorious. RULES OF PREY
AUTHOR: John Sandford (1989) Paperback, Berkley, $4.95
PLOT: Serial killer stalks Minneapolis
BODY COUNT: Eight
WORST THING KILLER DOES : Butchers a partially paralyzed woman TO SOMEONE
KILLER'S METHOD: Beating, stabbing
KILLER'S MOTIVE: Sheer madness. Merest hint of a mother complex
NICKNAME: The maddog
HERO: Raffish cop Lucas Davenport
DESCRIPTION OF KILLER: ''Curly red hair, the beginnings of a double chin, a roundness to the lower belly lips like red worms.''
GORE SCALE (1-5): Three skulls
COMMENTS: Davenport is far too portentous for his own good, but this is a great page turner- terrifying in all the right places. Sequels: Shadow Prey, Eyes of Prey A-
KILLER ON THE ROAD
AUTHOR: James Ellroy (1986) Paperback, Avon, $3.95
PLOT: Psychotic roams the country, killing at whim
BODY COUNT: Police estimate is 50, but that's low
WORST THING KILLER DOES: Substitutes Benzedrine for mother's TO SOMEONE phenobarbital, driving her to suicide, then drinks her blood
KILLER'S METHOD: Varied. Likes axes, guns, and knives
KILLER'S MOTIVE: Basic insanity, compounded by a mother problem
NICKNAME: The Shroud Shifter
HERO: Tormented agent Thomas Dusenberry
DESCRIPTION OF : Has in his head ''a steel-sharp mental KILLER device that knew what I needed to keep from being bored.''
GORE SCALE: Three skulls
COMMENTS: Next to Red Dragon and Lambs, this is perhaps the most deeply scary book of them all, guaranteed to induce cold sweats and/or nightmares. A
LOVES MUSIC, LOVES TO DANCE
AUTHOR: Mary Higgins Clark (1991) Paperback, Simon & Schuster, $3.95
PLOT: Killer seeks victims through personal ads
BODY COUNT: Eight
WORST THING Videotapes a victim's death KILLER DOES: TO SOMEONE
KILLER'S METHOD: Strangulation
KILLER'S MOTIVE: Girls wouldn't dance with him, so he plans to kill 10- one for each toe
