Brooklyn Three

Detective Francis DeSales of the Brooklyn, N.Y., Violence Task Force is destined for an explosive encounter with a killer in Boyle's ( Only the Dead Know Brooklyn ) compelling new police procedural. DeSales lives in fast-lane Manhattan with ambitious, WASPy TV news reporter Megan Moore and, due to the racial war raging in his native Brooklyn,vehemently denies his Italian heritage. When what seems to be an assassination attempt on the black mayoral candidate takes the life of the campaign manager, a 1960s liberal, DeSales is called to the case. A videotaped montage of clips from '60s events and pornographic flicks sent to the mayoral candidate's house serves as a clue, and a strange, alienated young man who calls himself Bono Hendrix becomes the main suspect. Bono, whose brain is scrambled by steroids and by the '60s cliches his ex-hippie father taught him, soon makes a grisly discovery in the tenement room that houses his weapons arsenal and his only friend, a dying gay black man. Completely unbalanced, he heads for what will be a fateful meeting with DeSales. Despite many red herrings and heavy-handed prose, this is a fast-paced, colorful and atmospheric novel, lent immediacy by its references to actual events. (June)