No Go on Jackson Street

Edgar-winning nonfiction author Weiss (Double Playp, makes a snappy fiction debut here. Ben Henry, 40-ish ex-reporter and San Francisco cabdriver is asked for help by Yollo, foster son of Ben's best friend. It seems someone has set the young man up to take the rap for the murder of San Francisco's top columnist. Yollo, an outlandishly fey drug dealer, isn't one of Ben's favorite people, but the former newspaperman is intrigued by the murder and begins sleuthing. Ben sees Yollo shot to death and soon becomes embroiled in a tangled web of murder, drugs, hidden family ties and multigenerational revenge. The colorful characters include the columnist's beautiful daughter, a powerful and malevolent newspaper publisher and his gay son. The solution won't surprise veteran mystery readers, but Weiss keeps things moving, and Ben Henry is nicely hard-boiled without being trite. Especially refreshing is his affectionately skeptical view of San Francisco: ""More like Cincinnati than it could ever admit to itself, a vain little popinjay of a town that called itself everybody's favorite.'' (June)