BOYOS

Marinick's confident and brutally authentic first novel should appeal to devotees of hard-boiled crime and urban literary fiction. Set in and around "Southie," the South Boston working-class Irish-American enclave popularized by such novelists as George V. Higgins and Dennis Lehane, the story focuses on Jack "Wacko" Curran, a rising young player in the criminal underworld. Local "boyos" like Curran resent the steady influx of young working professionals, who are gentrifying the area and pricing the old-time residents out. Curran and his coked-out brother, Kevin, work for mob boss Marty Fallon, wholesaling drugs to a network of area dealers. Tired of giving Fallon a cut of every score, Jack dreams of replacing Fallon and figures that the bankroll from the armored-car heist he's planning will put him on his way. Trouble is, Danny King, Curran's getaway driver, has spilled the beans to Fallon. Meanwhile, things on the street are building to an all-out war. The police are systematically raiding the Irish mob joints in Southie and the Italians are hungry for revenge. A one-time Southie gang member and ex-con, Marinick writes what he knows in this visceral, accomplished debut. (Sept. 15)

Forecast: A blurb from Robert B. Parker will help, but series potential is limited as the novel lacks a detective protagonist.