The King of the Night Cap

Shifty Lou Anderson, cardplayer, magician and racetrack habitue, is back in Murray's ( Tip on a Dead Crab ) latest ingenious caper. When a track errand-runner disappears with a bundle of cash, Shifty and his sidekick Jay Fox follow his trail to Tijuana. There, instead of recovering his loot, Shifty finds that he is part owner of a broken-down horse named Fred's Folly. This twist draws him into investigating a web of scams involving the drugging of horses and the smuggling of priceless Mayan artifacts across the border inside gorilla masks. The colorful cast includes a transsexual Mexican hooker, a female jockey from Texas, a porno movie producer and regulars at the races. New Yorker staff writer Murray brings uncommon literary flair to his tangy evocation of lowlife as he shuttles between Mexico and L.A. Fast, funny and furious, this labyrinthine puzzler starts out a bit shakily but sprints to a satisfying finish. (Aug.)