Cleopatra Gold

In his best book since his debut, One Police Plaza , Caunitz follows a major Latin American drug syndicate that has brought new meaning to the term ``designer drugs'' by selling high-grade heroin in recyclable packages with the ``Cleopatra'' logo. Cleopatra is also the code name for the head of the syndicate, a heartless female assassin who years earlier shot down Alejandro Monahan's father. Now a deep-cover agent for the NYPD's Intelligence Division, the half-Mexican, half-Irish Monahan, a nightclub singer, has a fictionalized past but a continuing commitment to avenge his father. After three undercover agents are brutally executed, Monahan is put into play, infiltrating the syndicate. At the same time, other police units send another undercover agent--an attractive and relatively inexperienced young woman--into the volatile situation. The story follows generally predictable lines toward the climax in which both operatives face deadly danger and Cleopatra's identity is disclosed. Caunitz lifts his story out of the ordinary with a dazzling use of extraordinarily advanced spy and communications devices by both the authorities and drug lords. The fascinating, improbable technology makes a highly intriguing hook, which Caunitz exploits skillfully. (Aug.)