Night Life

The theft by a drug lord of a mysterious green powder called skullflushp. 35 from a fierce Venezuelan mountain people wreaks havoc on its abusers. Justin Gray, a former small-time drug dealer in St. Louis, has arrived in Tampa, Fla., to start a new life. But on his first night in town his buddy Erik takes him to a disco, where he tries a mild dose of skullflush. Another of Erik's friends, Trent, takes rather a larger dose and is tranformed into a ravenous beast who practically devours four people and then commits suicide. Tampa drug dealer Tony Mendoza, who turns into a human version of his pet piranha when he samples the drug, begins a search for Justin, the only witness who knows what really happened in the disco that fateful night. Mendoza himself is sought by the Yanomamo warrior Kerebawa, who travels to America to retrieve skullflush and avenge its theft before it is sniffed by too many of the wrong noses. Kerebawa's arrival is the only redeeming and imaginative feature of Hodge's ( Dark Advent ) occasionally ghastly and overly long novel. (Mar.)