cover image Atlanta Heat

Atlanta Heat

Robert Coram. Signet Book, $5.99 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-451-19391-9

Colin Biddle, scion of a wealthy Atlanta family and ace crime reporter on the Constitution, stops for gas at a convenience store one night and ends up killing two people, one of them the brother of fellow reporter Kitty O'Hara. Ambitious detective C.R. Payne, the young black officer assigned to the case, can't believe Colin could do such a thing. Colin's rich and connected to just about everybody--police, court justices, the governor. Kitty is a tough, vengeful, pistol-packing woman who makes a good counterpoint with the rather uptight C.R. Their cat-and-mouse with Colin is relentless and fast paced, filled with usually successful plot twists (though the drunk Kitty's discovery of a clue is just improbable), plain prose and an easy approach to race. (Nov.)