cover image Harm's Way

Harm's Way

Aleister Foxx. St. Martin's Press, $19.45 (298pp) ISBN 978-0-312-07772-3

Montreal PI Lee Harms burns incense, chants Tibetan mantras and consults his astrologer girlfriend Celeste, whose trade makes about as much sense to the uninitiated as an account of a cricket match does to the average American. Underneath the New Age trappings, however, the divorced ex-cop is plenty hard-boiled, using fists, guns and sheer wit to escape the many tight spots here. The story begins as surgeon William Reynolds appeals to Harms to find his wayward 18-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who has disappeared once again. To avoid a scandal that might damage his planned entree into politics, Reynolds has already paid $50,000 to suppress a videotape of Elizabeth making love to another woman. Now a second demand has come--for $250,000. Harms accepts the doctor's offer of $10,000 in cash to find Elizabeth and deliver her to a London rehab clinic, but the trail winds through murder, torture, prostitution, drug-dealing, pornography, even the kidnapping of Harms's young daughter. The pseudonymous author, described as a ``practicing astrologist,'' has published other novels under the alias Alan Marks ( Commando Attack ). (Aug.)