American Killing

Fans of Smith's four literary novels, which include The Book of Phoebe and Masters of Illusion, may be surprised by her segue into the suspense genre, but the good news is that she succeeds admirably in this lively and absorbing novel. Her heroine, Denise Burke, a bestselling writer of true crime books, is mentally seduced by charismatic Congressman Owen Hall at a Literary Guild bash (one of many references to publishing manners and mores) into writing about a triple murder in Owen's home town of New Caxton, R.I., for which Eddie Baines, a black former local sports star, was convicted in a travesty trial. As Denise begins to investigate the murder of the Montevallo family, physical seduction and a rapturous love affair with Owen quickly follow. Denise, who is enduring a lackluster marriage to Nick Burke, a top man in the Clinton administration, soon is rocketing back and forth between D.C. and New Caxton, where she uncovers a pattern of chicanery and deception that involves the entire community. When Owen does a sudden about-face and pleads with her to abandon the book, Denise refuses and finds herself in peril. Among the novel's attractions are Smith's nimble use of Washington gossip and her grasp of forensic details. Notable also is her astute portrayal of an economically depressed town where racism and ethnic bias among Poles, Italians and blacks did not surface until jobs became scarce (members of New Caxton's patrician population, to which Hall's family belongs, are referred to by the others as ""Americans""). Fueled by ""pathologically cynical"" narrator Denise's sarcastic quips, the plot zips along at a brisk pace and stumbles only toward the end, when Smith unveils a credibility-stretching surfeit of villains and motives in untangling the web of crimes and suspects. Meanwhile, Smith's witty, intelligent take on the links between high-level politics and sophisticated crime has the ring of truth and the zest of a real page-turner. Agent, Aaron Priest Agency; 75,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC selection; audio to Brilliance; author tour; foreign rights sold in Germany, U.K. and the Netherlands. (Sept.)