cover image Deep Cover

Deep Cover

D. Edward Bungert, Ed Bungert. Signet Book, $4.99 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-451-17482-6

FBI agent Martin Walsh, who hasn't had an assignment in ages, finally sees more action than he'd like when he is assigned to infiltrate the Henchmen, a multi-state motorcycle gang that deals in extortion, murder for hire, drug dealing and ``other nasty activities.'' Going in under the alias ``Dr. Death,'' Walsh earns his membership, a sticky proposition since his initiation involves murder. He plumbs the slick, powerful organization underlying the gang's scruffy, beer-guzzling exterior and learns how it eludes the police, noting piously that ``if every member of law enforcement was honest there would be no more crime.'' The longer he's with the members of this sleazy crew, the more he takes to them, concluding that hatred of these bikers rests on envy of their freedom from social constraints and fear of what is alien. Violent episodes seem to appear as much for their own sake as to advance the plot, as with a fight between the Philadelphia Henchmen and the Mafia in which Walsh has no part. The theme of police corruption and penny-ante philosophy notwithstanding, Bungert's debut highlights savages having a good time at what they do. (Jan.)