cover image The Love That Kills

The Love That Kills

Ronald Levitsky. Scribner Book Company, $18.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-684-19295-6

Though Levitsky's debut novel offers no thrilling plot twists, his likable characters and unobtrusive voice make this an enjoyable and often provocative read. Jimmy Wilkes is a Southern lawyer who specializes in environmental issues in his hometown of Musket Shoals, Va. His boss and old family friend, Edgar Simpson, asks him to prosecute Edison Basehart, accused of killing a young Vietnamese woman who lived in a neighborhood that has become an enclave for Asian refugees. Wilkes is reluctant, but Simpson convinces him to take what is apparently an open-and-shut case--Basehart is a member of Guardians of an Undefiled Nation (G.U.N.) and is widely known for his hatred of all ethnic groups. Improbably, Nate Rosen, a civil rights attorney for the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution, is assisting in Basehart's defense; for while Rosen despises Basehart's fascist views, he believes the accused man is innocent. Although the two lawyers are ostensibly on opposite sides of the case, they are soon working together, allied by a shared commitment to justice, to clear Basehart and punish the guilty party. Along the way, Levitsky raises interesting questions about how fanatics can abuse liberty in the name of a putative higher good. Detective Book Club selection. (July)