The Timothy Files

These three detective tales may not have quite the panache of The Anderson Tapes or the Deadly Sin series, but each is suspenseful, well wrought and stamped with Sanders's special insight into the baser aspects of human nature. They feature Timothy Cone, ""the Wall Street dick,'' who works for an investigative agency, has an affair going with his boss Samantha and, though unprepossessing in manner and appearance, feels driven to uncover the scams behind the glossy fronts of wealthy business; he can also smell a dummy corporation or a money-laundering operation a mile away. The files deal respectively with a murderous real-estate conglomerate, a fertility clinic devoted to considerably more than ``original biotechnological research'' and an investment house involved in drugsthough only detective work of the highest caliber can discover the seamy details. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. (June 16)