Prime Suspect

Gray's ( The Man Offside ) tough, energetic new novel packs disturbing crime scenes, salty language and cynical working-class views of the power elite. Lackey Ferguson, an honest ex-serviceman who runs a contracting business in Fort Worth, Tex., wants to save enough money to take his fiancee, Nancy, on a San Francisco honeymoon. He figures he has it made when wealthy Percy Hardin hires him to build a $100,000 bathhouse for Mrs. Hardin. Lackey closes the deal, nobly fends off Mrs. Hardin's amorous advances and departs, nearly sideswiping a Volvo with his lovingly maintained pickup on the way out. Driving the Volvo is a vicious, unhinged parolee named Everett ``Monkey Man'' Wilson, who assaults and murders the hapless Mrs. Hardin per her loathsome husband's orders. Soon Lackey is interrogated by an unlovable assistant D.A. and two smarmy cops; meanwhile Nancy--shown on a TV news spot--has become part of Monkey Man's perverse fantasy life. Lackey evades arrest to get the goods on Percy, while Mexican-American Nancy thwarts racist, sexist cops anxious to pin the rap on him. Readers will sympathize with the underdog heroes of this rousing, hard-boiled suspense story. (July)