The Score

Lauren Kelly, the heroine of this far-fetched urban thriller from Swinson (Playing Dirty), has been supporting herself and her boyfriend, Matt Connors, with fraudulent credit cards and phony checks, but when she learns that he’s cheating on her with their other partner, Yancy, she wants revenge. Yancy, a sometime prostitute, is angry that a wealthy client is ending their liaison, so she tells Lauren and Matt about his $3 million bank account, and they make plans to steal the money. Matt, a former Virginia Beach, Va., drug kingpin, sees the score as his ticket back to power. Lauren sees it as a way to humiliate Matt and Yancy and start over somewhere else. None of them reckons with a ruthless mark determined to track them down and recover his money. Alternating first-person narrations fail to make vapid characters compelling or add depth to their interactions. Readers who appreciate erotica might enjoy the detailed descriptions of sexual encounters. (Feb.)