Black and White

Few authors map the political minefields faced by cops on a high-profile case with more realism than Mahoney (Once In, Never Out). In his fifth novel, this former NYPD captain ups the ante considerably by including real-life lawmen as characters in a sizzling tale of a serial sex-murders case that spreads from California to Thailand. Mahoney's regular hero, NYPD Detective First Grade Brian McKenna, is tapped by Homicide when the married daughter of city council president Paul Barrone is savagely slain in a lover's lane killing along with Barrone aide Arthur McMahon, the son of a powerful Virginia politician. Brian is teamed with the more famous Tommy McKenna (no relation but a real-life NYPD detective), who's in the doghouse with Barrone over a campaign tiff. Tommy ties the M.O. to an unsolved case from 18 years ago; the cops get a break with the killers' first mistake--use of stolen credit cards in San Jose, Calif.--revealed to them through illegal information proffered by Bob Hurley, an ex-cop turned PI who specializes in legal ""shortcuts."" Brian flies to San Jose and meets Randy Bynum, a black local cop obsessed with a similar killing there who has found clues that have led him to a porn Web site and pictures of what turns out to be the killers, one black and one white, whipping a young victim. The McKennas and Bynum join forces, while McMahon's father hires Hurley to bypass legal red tape and speed the case along. Mahoney weaves a brilliantly twisted plot that makes the most out of solid police work while tapping into extralegal sources to actually solve the case. Clues gleaned from around the world are braided into a noose of a denouement that will leave victims' rights advocates cheering and police procedural buffs smiling. (June)