Blue Belle

When Burke, a yuppie-hating, horse-playing ex-con and private-eye outlaw, takes on the Times Square world of porn and murder, he finds himself facing a deadly karate expert and falling for a masochistic woman who's learning to deal with her past as an abused child. Although this ``often reads like parody of hardboiled detective novels,'' the ``abrupt climax leaves the heart pounding,'' noted PW. (Jan.)