The El Murders

Fourth in Granger's Edgar-winning series, introduced with Public Murders, this novel seems disturbingly real in its depiction of justice denied to victims of outrageous abuse. Terry Flynn and his lover Karen Kovac, both Chicago police detectives, find the odds against them in separate cases. After leaving the elevated train at night, Brendan Cale and Lee Herran are attacked by three delinquents. Herran is murdered and Flynn is assigned to investigate. Kovac is in charge of tracing the two men who raped young Mary Ann Caldwell on an el platform, where she was found naked much later on a freezing afternoon. As Flynn gathers evidence against the homosexual Herran's killers, he gets deeper into trouble with his boorish chief and fellow cops who sneer, ""who cares about fags?'' Kovac, similarly frustrated, perceives that Mary Ann's trauma is driving her into psychosis. Blocked by red tape and unofficial interferences, the two cases remain in limbo until ``solved'' by a daring ploy. The versatile Granger also wrote The November Man, Hemingway's Notebook and other excellent thrillers. (June 30)