Fence Jumpers

Characters authentic enough to be carved out of New York City sidewalks skitter along a thin line that divides loyalties in this outstanding black-humored mob-and-cop yarn. Detectives Dante O'Donnell and Saul ``Jimmy'' Burns grew up in Queens, forming an inseparable trio with JoJo Paradiso, son of and heir to Sally Blue Eyes, the local don. Now JoJo is going against his mafia family's wishes by moving the Paradiso family into the drug trade. Partnered on the Organized Crime Task Force, Dante and Jimmy collide with their pasts when assigned to the Paradiso wiretapping team with detectives Kathy Gibbons and Ray Velasquez. Tension builds as JoJo is tipped that the feds have an informer in the crime family's inner circle and as Ray identifies a cop who's been feeding JoJo police information--a fingering that costs one detective his life. Meanwhile, Kathy, a lesbian, develops emotional ties to Dante as the pair go after the Paradiso gang, and JoJo works frantically to seal a drug deal with Cuban suppliers, keep his activities secret from ``the old man'' and smoke out the family traitor. Matters come to a bloody head as a mob war erupts and JoJo and the cops each settle the score with their respective snitches, leading to a prefectly orchestrated ending. Leuci (Doyle's Disciples) makes his characters breathe, wisecrack and bleed off the pages of this hypnotic thriller, capturing the crazed loneliness and desperation of soldiers on both sides of the crime war. (May)