Keeplock: A Novel of Suspense

Peter Frangello hasn't been out of jail for three straight years since he was 16. Now in his 30s, freshly paroled and determined to stay clean, he's in trouble within a day of release. A friend from the slammer is setting up an armored car heist that interests two corrupt cops; they elect Frangello to move in on the theft--and keep them posted. Frangello still wants to to do the right thing, but sees that ``the right thing wasn't there to do.'' His parole officer likes him but can't help; his girl, Ginny, is loyal but he needs to protect her. This fairly linear narrative features grim, authentic-feeling jail flashbacks. The plot, in which Frangello hopes to survive threats from the clean cops, bent ones and the crooks running the heist, has a few holes (a final confrontation with one bad cop leaves a reader wondering where the other one is). But Cray, who is really Stephen Solomita, gives plenty of insider dope on the crime world and creates, in Frangello, an unexpectedly sympathetic unheroic hero. (Mar.)