Innocence Lost

This is a disquieting, involving account of the murder of an undercover police officer by two teenagers in Midlothian, Tex., regarded as an idyllic town to raise children. Officer George Raffield posed as a high school student to infiltrate Midlothian's drug culture, which he did with some success. After a time, however, the student drug abusers grew suspicious of him, especially Greg Knighten, adopted son of a police officer, and Richard Goeglein, whose parents had moved from Arizona following his involvement in a bizarre suicide pact. The two lured Raffield into the country and Knighten shot him. Goeglein turned state's evidence and his cohort was sentenced to 45 years after a trial which, Stowers ( Careless Whispers ) suggests, revealed the district attorney as a mediocre prosecutor. (July)