The Midnight Partner

City sin comes to the suburbs in this hard-to-swallow thriller from Davis (Voyage of the Storm). When Jack Murphy takes a fatal dive into his empty Nassau County swimming pool, his screenwriting partner, Phillie Liebowitz, tries to find out why. Computer messages left by Jack soon lead Phillie into a suburban underground of drug abuse, group sex and S&M that tunnels across the East River into the even more wicked city. Before Phillie uncovers the main villain behind Jack's death, this 44-year-old has gone riding with a biker gang, had his house bombed, been shot at and poisoned, had a tortured woman die in his arms, visited a Manhattan S&M club with his Jewish gangster cousin, picked up a much younger woman for a night of mind-shattering sex-and killed two men with a giant ice-making machine at Madison Square Garden. If Davis had presented these adventures in middle-age wish fulfillment with the humor they deserve, this novel might have worked. Instead, he leaches away the fun by allowing Phillie's narration-which offers some sharp insights into suburban life and sexual license-to descend into moralizing and sour commentary on pet peeves like doctors, Roman Catholicism and the big, bad city. By the climax, which features a naked Phillie taking on the villain as a snuff film blares on TV, most readers will want to forsake both city and suburb for the mountains, the sea, the desert-anywhere to escape this overwrought silliness. Literary Guild alternate; major ad/promo. (July)