Told from a variety of perspectives, including that of Detective Sanchez of the Bronx NYPD, this fevered noir from Rodriguez (Spidertown
) centers on law enforcement's search for a drug dealer known as Spook, who had agreed to launder huge sums of money for a terrorist group, but took off with the cash instead. Punctuating the main story line are chapters whose relevance is obscure; one, for example, contains short biographies of Leni Riefenstahl, Anne Sexton and Marlene Dietrich. The author eventually pulls the disparate strands together, including those to do with Ava Reynolds, a mysterious blonde with instant recall who proves her ability by memorizing a page of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho
. At its best, the novel carries the reader along by the force of its hypnotic prose, but the effort necessary to keep track of what's going on may turn off those more comfortable with a conventional linear narrative. Author tour. (Apr.)
