Death Benefit

Altruistic ex-reporter George Gray takes on evil insurance agent Jim Hartman in this slick, suspense-filled thriller, the third in the series (after Final Fear), set in Philadelphia. Hartman has concocted a clever scam to cheat trusting people out of their rightful claims: he secretly cancels their insurance policies and pockets their premiums. When years later a loved one dies (often with Hartman's help), he produces phony documentation to prove the victim was never entitled to the insurance coverage in the first place. Gray begins to notice a suspicious pattern in court cases connected to Hartman, but rather than go to the police, he schemes to gain enough evidence to blackmail the con man into returning the stolen money to the wronged families. Gray eventually becomes involved with Rachel Curren, a physically fit young attorney with a troubled past--and a link to Hartman. Might she too be guilty of terrible crimes? Harper is good at detailing the insurance fraud and at creating convincing characters. Less than realistic are the life-threatening scrapes Gray blunders into periodically: a confrontation with Hartman in a darkened elevator, a fight with some toughs in a jail holding cell, a chase in an abandoned warehouse where the killer lurks. Cinematic clich s aside, the author does furnish an exciting climax, where Gray has to do some fast talking to persuade a corrupt judge that shooting him wouldn't be smart. Agent, Esther Newburg. (July) FYI: Philip Harper is the pseudonym for the writing team of Jonathan Neumann, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, and Stuart Green, a psychologist.