Mean Streak

Law enforcement emerges as a dirtier and much more interesting sport than mud wrestling when Brooklyn lawyer Cass Jameson, last seen in the well-received Fresh Kills, agrees to defend an ex-lover charged with bribery. Attorney Matt Riordan, who defends mob clients, claims he did not buy secret grand jury records of testimony given by minor criminal Nunzie Aiello: the charge-and possibly some of the evidence-has been handcrafted by federal prosecutor Nick Lazarus, ostensibly as a way of permanently getting rid of Matt. Since Nunzie has gone missing, the key is to prove that the prosecution's key witness, police officer Eddie Fitzgerald, is not as squeaky clean as he seems, a great idea until the drug dealer who could bring Eddie down turns up in the city morgue. In the meantime, the wheels of justice grind on (frustrating macho Matt, who says ""adjournments are for losers""); and Cass, a convincing blend of shrewdness and emotion, watches her first high-profile, media-circus trial wobble toward increasingly likely defeat. Spurning a simple world of absolute good and evil, Wheat dexterously depicts a complex urban society where justice is not the uncontested province of the courts and it's best to keep a sharp eye on even those you think you can trust. (May)