(5 of 7)
To some degree, Maas suggests, the CIA shares responsibility for Wilson's misdeeds. Originally the agency set up dummy corporations through which Wilson funneled goods and services to foreign groups deemed friendly to the U.S. But according to Maas' account, the CIA looked the other way after Wilson left the agency to become an entrepreneur. To the author, Wilson is a sort of cloak-and-dagger Great Gatsby, although there is nothing romantic about his exploits. Manhunt is about naked greed, a tale full of knaves and sociopaths pursuing a twisted dream of private enterprise.
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN UMPIRE
by Ron Luciano and David Fisher
Bantam; 326 pages; $15.95
He has bombinated about his career in the Big Leagues twice, in The Umpire Strikes Back and Strike Two. Now Ron Luciano appears as you never saw him before: unemployed. He remains funny but unbowed: "The bankruptcy went very well. I've got the car running again." By the ump's own admission, he told all of his story in the first volumes and then "ran out of my own life." But that has not stopped him from continuing to yammer. This time out, he releases some odd information ("In Cleveland (stadium) they have problems growing grass, so they paint the ground green"), remembers the greatest catch by a fan and includes the autobiographies of some less than celebrated players. Rocky Bridges: "The more I played (with the Dodgers), the more it became obvious that no one there could take a joke. My batting average." Greg Minton: Growing up, "I never even thought about playing professional baseball. I wanted to do something meaningful--I wanted to be a surfer." Marc Hill: "The team's press guide listed among the highlights of my career that 'Hill did not appear in the '83 playoffs against Baltimore.' " Luciano now claims to be seeking a political career, his first post-baseball effort without a collaborator. It is about time the arbiter learned to strike out on his own.
CINDERELLA
by Ed McBain
Holt; 262 pages; $14.95
ANOTHER PART OF THE CITY
by Ed McBain
Mysterious Press; 230 pages; $15.95
When writing his steely, intensely violent mysteries, the novelist who is otherwise known as Evan Hunter (The Blackboard Jungle, Last Summer) calls himself Ed McBain. Fans have learned that the McBain byline promises wit, shrewd plotting and downbeat realism, but also allows for great variety. His 47th and 48th books demonstrate that range. Cinderella is a gem of sting and countersting among a prostitute, a gay hairdresser, a Latin American drug king, a Mafioso, his brutal brother, and assorted innocents who get hurt. The action keeps up until the final sentence. Another Part of the City is a thriller about a sophisticated Wall Street scam and its murderous repercussions in far less swank parts of New York City. The wrongdoers are exposed, but scarcely brought to book, by an honest cop who sees connections between the deaths of a multimillionaire and a small-time restaurateur and manages to wreck his marriage through obsession with an unwinnable fight against evil.
PROVIDENCE
by Geoffrey Wolff
Viking; 217 pages; $16.95