Homeboy

Seth Morgan. Vintage Books USA, $12 (390pp) ISBN 978-0-679-73395-9

Joe Speaker, a junkie and barker at a San Francisco strip joint, finds a 69-carat blue diamond that involves him in a murder/blackmail deal and lands him in jail. ``Overall the novel and its sad look at prison life are marred by a highly derivative thriller plot, with characters . . . all tending to talk the same combination of hipster slang and B-movie cliches,'' said PW. (May)

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