Shooter

A two-time Pulitzer nominee, newspaper reporter Kinkopf knows well the grittiness of the inner city, and his fiction debut is a corker. Detroit's control-freak police chief is leading some community pillars (the mayor, a prosecuting attorney, a judge) in a scheme to save their political fortunes by having drug dealers killed. Only the chief knows the ``shooter.'' After a year of assassinations, the chief sets up Julius Cooper, young drug kingpin, for the slaying of an 11-year-old boy, a crime that has shocked even Detroit. Det. Stan Kochinski and his old partner Pete Dawlson are given three days to come up with a suspect, and it's clear the chief wants Cooper. The various power struggles--with the cabal, the PD, the drug world and the Detroit Free Press (for which Kinkopf has written)--are seamlessly woven together as Kinkopf leads us on a grim, lethal, wholly absorbing chase. Kochinski's affair with the chief's wife assumes crucial relevance at the satisfying ending, and the surprise identity of the assassin doesn't disappoint, either. Kinkopf is a writer to watch. (Jan.)