Dead Fit

Racism and misogyny are all in a day's work for a tough London policewoman in this dynamic, hardboiled crime novel. Although it offers a few positive portraits of law enforcers, the harsh narrative focuses on the blatant harassment by white male officers of Judy Best, a white cop dating a black man named Clinton Pink. Judy quietly endures her colleagues' patently offensive remarks about interracial relationships, but she boldly faces off against them when a repugnant investment executive who tried to rape her on a date is found at the gym with his head messily crushed in a weight machine after an argument with Clinton. In the nail-gnawing finale, Judy outsmarts everyone yet receives--unsurprisingly--scorn rather than kudos. Cook's ( Upperdown ) phonetically written dialogue captures the sound of crude street slang, and his swaggering constables exude conspiratorial machismo. Realistic and fast-moving, the story spotlights two forms of extreme ugliness: homicide and discrimination. ( Apr. )