City of God

Sometime in the very near future, according to this overly familiar dystopian vision, there will be two societies-the underclass and overclass-living in essentially separate, though geographically identical, cities. (The book's title refers to St. Augustine and his city famously divided between the faithful and the damned.) The poor in this gritty metropolis are lost and unhappy, strung out on crack or heroine, addicted to mind-numbing TV and shockingly desensitized to violence. The privileged stay mostly in their suburban neighborhoods or depraved clubs and blithely make decisions that ruin thousands. A boy from the 'hood, inspired by a mysterious rap singer, goes a little crazy and takes out a couple of cops; then the entire 'hood goes a bit mad and starts rioting. A tough black cop and a hard-working white ADA try to track the killer through his essentially harmless buddy. Standing in their way is a sleazy public defender who manages to sell his position as the boy's attorney to the city's monolithic TV station as part of a live special on the crisis. These tired situations and obvious characters, to make matters worse, are woven into a plot whose twists are tipped off time and again. And that's a shame, since Grimes is a strong stylist who can at times write with real heat-albeit not enough to warm most readers to this cliched, disappointing yarn. (Aug.)