Beach House 7

A ship filled with boat people floats listlessly toward a reef. Aboard is an escaping South Vietnamese lieutenant carrying a module for an extravagant CIA computer left behind after the victory of the Communist forces. Peter Voss, who operated this computer for the U.S. Army from Beach House 7, wants to reclaim the powerful module to help him rifle banks in southeast Asia. He recruits the help of David Sloan, a recently retired banker and erstwhile pilot. In his second novel (The Kaligarh Fault, Roadarmel suspends the reader between Conradian tragedy and le Carre-likecomplexity. He adroitly manipulates a clutch of hard-boiled, sometimes seedy characters, all of whom face despair on the one hand and deep-seated corruption on the other. Fast-paced, gritty dialogue and grisly scenes keep this thriller a cut above the average. (January 26)