Third Beast

""Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,'' an injunction which the nameless hero of Loughran's second novel (after Dearest) forges when his niece, 13-year-old Laura, is raped by four ruddy blokes. The self-anointed blue-collar vindicator sets out to avenge her. One by one, he murders three of the rapists and at the conclusion, determines on killing the last as well as the trial judge who freed the four, and the lawyer who defended them. He escapes detection for the same reasons Laura's despoilers evaded punishmentthe bloody coppers don't give a damn. As vicious as a coiled cobra, this pathological exercise informs the reader of English working-class frustrations and the savagery they can engender. In addition to the violence portrayed here, some readers may be put off by the omnipresent British slang, much of it unfamiliar to readers on this side of the Atlantic. U.K. rights: Granada. October 22