cover image Perfect Cover

Perfect Cover

Linda Chase. Hyperion Books, $19.45 (339pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-6001-2

This collaboration between Chase ( Hollywood on Main Street ) and St. George, a former investigator for the New York Special State Prosecutor, results in an action-packed debut likely to please procedural fans more than crime thriller devotees. Three plot lines, based, according to the authors, on St. George's actual experiences investigating corruption in New York's criminal justice system, are braided rather gracelessly. In the first, undercover investigator Tina Paris narrates events occurring as she, clad in little black dresses and spike heels, gathers evidence against a corrupt judge and politician. Another thread follows a serial rapist who sends taunting faxes to the police; he's young, good-looking and likes to play Russian roulette with his victims. The third and most convincing strand involves a battered woman living on welfare who has witnessed a rogue cop shoot a gambler to death, giving Paris and her team an opportunity to put away one very bad guy. The cases are brought to resolutions of varying satisfaction. Although the prose is streamlined, the action proceeds at a brisk clip and the methodology of the Special Prosecutor's Office is fully detailed, the narrative voice has a hollow, manufactured quality that diminishes the novel's impact. Author tour. (Apr.)