The Flash Effect

From the moment Charlie Pine steals an ashtray from a fancy Manhattan restaurant to bring as a birthday present to his estranged father, the reader is hooked on Koperwas's (Easy Money) new novel. Although Charlie's dad is a powerful diamond merchant who believes that ``a man who built empires couldn't be afraid to steal,'' Charlie, 28, has held on to his principles. A baseball pitcher who can't quite make it to the Bigs, he works as a substitute junior high school teacher and coach. But Charlie hates his life as a ``loser'' and, despite his moral values, is ready to try out the flashy and corrupt business world in which his father and older brother, Marshall, have flourished. Once Charlie signs on to help with a multimillion-dollar scam based on the capability of an Israeli laboratory to upgrade low-quality diamonds, however, he finds himself in a baffling world in which no one, not even his blood relations, can be trusted. Koperwas knows that tales involving a scam satisfy most when an essentially innocent protagonist turns out to be just as larcenous, and a tad smarter, than the old pros-and no one will walk away disappointed from this high-spirited and engaging example. (Oct.)