PIPE DREAM

First-timer Jones travels deep into the drug-fueled underworld of a grim urban Philadelphia in this energetic novel, a neo-noir voyage into violence and injustice. When a popular Puerto Rican city councilman with a stellar anti-corruption record is shot dead in a Philly crack house in September 1992, a citywide manhunt begins. The targets of the hunt are four luckless crack addicts, innocent but doomed by association and reputation. The down-and-out addict and petty thief Leroy was on the scene, along with his sort-of girl, Pookie. Desperate, he turns to his sharper pal Black for help, who in turn involves Clarisse, a still-employed nurse who has only recently turned to crack. The cops pursue all four, looking to wrap the case up fast and easy (while concealing a secret plot of their own). Going back and forth between characters, hunters and hunted, Jones produces a mix like Dragnet meets Chester Himes, stamped by his own experience on the streets. The chase is compelling, but even more involving is the way Jones slowly reveals each character's story, presenting in convincing and heartbreaking detail how each was sucked into dead-end addiction. Clarisse and Black's romance and redemption is too neatly conceived, but this is a promising debut effort. Jones clearly has the stuff to become a major chronicler of the mean streets. Agent, Victoria Saunders. (July 31)

Forecast:Jones's own story—he escaped addiction to become a journalist and is currently a staff writer at the Philadelphia Weekly—is as compelling as his strong first novel, and a seven-city author tour should bring the book to readers' attention.