Rules of the Road

The romance of the road is tuned up and ticking over like a race car engine in this uneven action novel stocked with self-consciously colorful types nicknamed Jimmy Top, Moon and Weasel. Just back in the States from a hitch in Germany, Army major Sam Butterfield stops by the family farm in Illinois to see his mother and sell ``the modified,'' a hot car he built and raced as a teen. Before he can return to the Army's encompassing arms, he's hip-deep in a civilian mess involving a crooked politician; a toxic waste dump; a skinny, oddly loyal grifter named Johnny Gee; and blackmail videotapes. A suspenseful car chase is punctuated by crunching glass and bullet holes, but when it ends the excitement fizzles, and Sam heads off to the Army to cool his heels for several months before the story picks up again. Truscott ( Dress Gray ) stacks up classic themes of courage, honor and men under fire without paying much attention to plausibility. Readers who willingly suspend disbelief will enjoy a solid men's adventure yarn with loving descriptions of cars and their capabilities, and action scenes full of derring-do. (Sept.)